St. John's guard Deivon Smith drives to the basket against...

St. John's guard Deivon Smith drives to the basket against Seton Hall guard Jahseem Felton during the first half of an NCAA men’s basketball game Saturday at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. Credit: Noah K. Murray

NEWARK

We see this all the time in sports. The competitive athlete is dealing with fatigue or injury yet wants to play on. The coach or manager intervenes as the voice of reason and doesn’t expose the player or team to the risk. Very occasionally, there are exceptions when the stakes are enormous.

The stakes were not enormous for St. John’s on Saturday night when it faced a listing Seton Hall team in a Big East regular-season game at Prudential Center. Nevertheless, there was Deivon Smith and his injured right shoulder — seven days after suffering the injury, four days after it required a cortisone injection and a day after saying he felt discomfort while shooting — standing at the scorer’s table to check into the game.

Never mind that St. John’s on Wednesday will face a surging Xavier team that just won a road game at seventh-ranked Marquette. And never mind that coach Rick Pitino and the team’s trainer already had decided to hold the point guard out until the Musketeers come to the Garden.

Smith asked to play and Pitino agreed. Then it felt as if everybody got lucky. Smith clearly was limited in the 17 minutes he played, but he didn’t suffer further injury.

“I wasn’t going to play him because he said he couldn’t shoot, and he said, ‘Coach, I want to go,’ ” Pitino said after his team’s 79-51 win. “He said that to me and I was surprised. The trainer and I both made a decision [that] he wouldn’t play. But I thought it’d be good to go out there and run because he hasn’t practiced and [to] play a little bit. It’ll set him up for Wednesday’s game.”

If Pitino had decided that Smith might play if he were needed — foul trouble, another injury or with the game in jeopardy — that would be understandable. But with St. John’s up 12-3 and streaking toward a 39-16 halftime lead, Smith subbed in with 13:42 left in the half.

On Monday, the day before he was held out against Georgetown and instead got the injection, Smith was angling to play against the Hoyas. When asked if he was concerned about hard contact, such as running into a screen, he said he’d tough it out.

Pitino was asked if he was concerned about hard contact and replied, “No, he’s got a sprain. I wanted him to just get a few minutes tonight, just mentally get him over it. It’s the mental part right now [that] he’s got to get over.”

Smith was right about his shooting, as he went 0-for-6 from the floor. He handled the ball without a turnover but clearly favored his left hand. One of his assists came on a lefthanded pass. When he was on the bench, he wore a heat wrap on the shoulder. When he came out of the game, he wore an ice pack.

After watching the Red Storm without Smith against the Hoyas, Pitino said, “We’re nowhere near as good a team without Deivon.” But he also said there still was pain associated with the injury and that he wouldn’t use a player experiencing pain.

Pitino was asked if the injury still is bothering Smith and replied, “It bothers him a little when he shoots — especially when he misses.”

Having the healthiest Smith available for Wednesday’s game against Xavier seemed like the highest priority. St. John’s already has beaten the Musketeers, but they have been rolling ever since.

No one is comfortable questioning a Hall of Fame coach. But on this risk-reward calculation, the risk seemed to significantly outweigh the reward. At least the Red Storm should have Smith ready for Wednesday.

Storm doc in 6 parts

Vice TV will air the first episode in a six-part docuseries, “Pitino: Red Storm Rising,” on Feb. 11. In addition to airing on Vice’s cable and satellite channels, the docuseries will be available by streaming on half a dozen platforms, including Hulu, Sling and Dish Anywhere.

Pitino often has spoken of how St. John’s faded from national relevance for most of the last quarter-century. The decision to allow the filmmakers full access was about reversing that.

“I’m trying to promote the program,” he said. “I would not do this at Kentucky or Louisville. I’m doing it to promote St. John’s . . . Anything is good for St. John’s because it’s been missing for a lot of years . . . The more pub we get brings us back on the map, and that’s what we’re trying to do here.”

“Coach Pitino is a Hall of Fame coach and \[there’s\] a lot of people who want to see how he operates, see how he runs a team,” Aaron Scott said. “I think it’s good. It gives you a lot of behind the scenes. I think it’ll be a fun documentary.”

Vice released a trailer for the docuseries on Friday.<EI0,onecms:6b7cff06-2003-4f1f-ad9b-b8aa46b9e0e8,,video,,,,center,,>

Dunlap puts hold on surgery

St. John’s should have a better idea in approximately three weeks whether top outside shooter Brady Dunlap will be able to return this season from a small abdominal tear. The 6-7 sophomore had seen two doctors who recommended a surgical repair with a recovery time of three to four months. Pitino recommended that he see a trainer in Toronto who had helped Jamal Mashburn overcome the same injury without surgery, and it’s been decided to try the trainer’s approach.

“I have the tear,” Dunlap said. “What the guy in Toronto said is if I train everything else around it, then it won’t be as big of a deal, because everything else will be so strong in \[my\] core. So that’s basically the idea that we’re kind of following right now.”

Dunlap will do extensive core training for the next three weeks and then the situation will be reassessed. He doesn’t sound confident that he’ll be able to return but is trying to be optimistic.

He also said he might have to get the surgery after the season is over anyway. He called that a “best-case scenario.”

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