St. John's communication key to defending the three
St. John's Red Storm guard Kadary Richmond, center Vince Iwuchukwu and guard Deivon Smith react against the DePaul Blue Demons in the second half of a Big East men’s basketball game at Carnesecca Arena on Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Silence may be golden, but not when you’re playing defense.
As recently as Monday, Rick Pitino called defending the three-point shot “one of the major weaknesses of our basketball team” and blamed it on poor communication such as calling out the screens that are coming and the defensive switches that need to be made.
“To be a great defensive team, you must verbally communicate,” Pitino said. “And we have people who are very quiet . . . It’s very difficult to get people to change their personalities between the lines. We work on it every single day. Away from the lines, you can be quiet, you can be introverted. But between the lines, you have to talk.”
St. John’s went into Friday night’s Big East game against Providence at Amica Pavilion having lost only two of its 11 games by a total of four points. Its failure to defend the three-point line proved crucial in both defeats.
In the opener of a three-game trip to the Bahamas on Nov. 21, Baylor defeated the Red Storm, 99-98, in double overtime on Jeremy Roach’s three-pointer at the buzzer. It was controversial because a clock issue gave the Bears a tick of extra time to get the winning shot off, but it was their 15th three-pointer as they shot 52% from outside the arc. The Red Storm then lost by three to Georgia in the final game of the trip as the Bulldogs made 42% of their three-point attempts.
This week, however, the Red Storm may have started to turn the tide on that.
Their Big East opener on Tuesday night was against a DePaul team that relied heavily on three-point shots and was making 12.8 threes on 31.7 attempts per game. St. John’s held the Blue Demons to 6-for-20 (30%) shooting from beyond the arc and DePaul’s only three-pointer in the second half came with 42 seconds remaining.
“We made a huge jump,” Deivon Smith said. “It’s been a strong plea from Coach: stopping the three ball [and] picking [shooters] up.”
“We were preparing as if it was the last game of the season and we had to win it because of the way they shoot the ball, but our defense was absolutely brilliant,” Pitino said after Tuesday’s victory. “Prior to the last [minute] of the game, they didn’t have a [second-half] three. Their attempts were way down. That’s when you know you’re playing great defense, when the attempts are way down.”
Now that the Big East schedule is in full swing, a repeat effort like that is going to be essential for the Red Storm. Four teams — Xavier, Villanova, DePaul and Butler — entered Friday shooting at least 39% from beyond the arc.
“That’s something that we’re going to have to work on, just defending three-point shots,” Zuby Ejiofor said, “and limiting [teams] to as few three-pointers as possible.”
Pitino said last season’s team struggled with the same issue but the situation improved and coincided with its strong finish.
“If they want to win, they’ll figure it out,” he said. “That’s the thing: if you want to be a great defensive team, you have to talk.”
Reverse pivot for Pitino
Out of respect for the Providence program he used to coach, Pitino reversed directions Friday on a decision that St. John’s would no longer participate in the postgame handshake lines.
In a move that could have left St. John’s open to criticism, Pitino announced in a social media post on Thursday: “I certainly have great respect for the coaches and teams we play, but after witnessing multiple problems with the postgame handshake line, we will take a page out of the NBA playbook and refrain.”
Pitino made no reference to a particular game, but there was a kerfuffle between the teams after the Bryant game on Dec. 11.
He announced the reversal on social media as well in a post that read, “I thought my tweet regarding my respect for coaches and players was quite clear. We almost had a fight during the Bryant game in the handshake line and coaches had to get in the middle. We all shake hands before the game but my love and respect for PC is so high that now is not the time, but the fighting nonsense has to stop!”
Advocating for Donovan
When St. John’s visited Providence last season, Pitino made a plea in a news conference that the school retire the uniform number of Billy Donovan, the Rockville Centre native who starred for the Friars when Pitino coached them to the 1987 Final Four.
Not long afterward, the school made an announcement that it would do just that. The ceremony will be held in mid-February, timed around Donovan’s Chicago Bulls playing the Boston Celtics.
On Friday, Pitino was at it again. Donovan was announced as a candidate for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on Thursday as a coach and Pitino, already a member, voiced public support for his induction.
“There are eight coaches to win back-to-back NCAA championships, and one of them, Billy ‘The Kid’ Donovan, was just nominated for the Naismith Hall of Fame,” Pitino said in a social media post. “No one in coaching could be more deserving!”
As a college coach, Donovan went 502-207 and led Florida to consecutive national championships in 2006 and 2007.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.