St. John's hasn't forgotten Providence coach's comment
St. John's Red Storm guard Deivon Smith participates in a drill during practice at Madison Square Garden on Friday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
As good as St. John’s has been this season, it might be about to get better. Possibly much better.
Point guard Deivon Smith, who has missed three of the last four games with a right shoulder injury, will be back in uniform for the 15th-ranked Red Storm as they seek their eighth straight win in Saturday’s Big East matchup with Providence at noon at Madison Square Garden.
If it’s possible for St. John’s (18-3, 9-1) to be even more motivated than usual, this game against the Friars (11-10, 5-5) could do it. After the Red Storm scored an epic 72-70 comeback win in Providence on Zuby Ejiofor’s buzzer-beater, Friars coach Kim English said, “They force turnovers and they offensive rebound —- pretty much the only things they do really well.”
The Red Storm players didn’t appreciate it.
Asked Friday if he remembered that, Smith replied, “Yes, and I disagree. I think we do a lot of other good stuff and we just didn't play our best basketball that first half. So he has to come in here at 12 p.m. on Saturday and re-judge.”
Injured in a first-half collision in the Jan. 11 win over Villanova, Smith missed the next game and attempted to come back against Seton Hall a week later, was badly hampered and said the Pirates were overly physical with him because of the injury. He missed the last two games, and coach Rick Pitino suggested the last hurdle would be not fearing contact. He faced contact the last few practices, including Friday’s at the Garden.
“I’m feeling good [and] . . . I’m not thinking about it,” said Smith, who is averaging 10.3 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.3 assists and is making a team-high 39% of his three-point shots. “Mentally, that was like the last part, just taking hits and getting out there running.”
“I think we gambled —- we went longer than we should have to get him 100%,” Pitino said. “We gambled that we could win without him. It was a big gamble, and it paid off. Now I think he's over the hump.”
Before getting injured, Smith had been a key factor in some of the Red Storm’s best performances. His return comes at an important time. St. John’s will face No. 9 Marquette at the Garden on Tuesday and play Friday at No. 25 UConn.
Not all the news was good Friday. Brady Dunlap will have season-ending surgery Thursday to repair a small abdominal tear. He said the estimated recovery time is three months, that he still will be on the bench and that he will apply for a medical redshirt to retain the year of eligibility.
“Obviously, it's my dream to play on a top 15 team — it’s kind of why I came here in the first place,” Dunlap said. “So it's pretty disappointing.”
In the first contest against Providence, a game in which the Red Storm missed 15 three-pointers and clanged 15 free throws, they trailed by 16 before rallying to win. Contrary to English’s assessment that day, they have proved to be much more than two-dimensional since. One can't help but feel they have looked forward to the rematch, which is expected to draw a near-sellout crowd.
“It's definitely something that we see as players and it's something [where] we feel like we're not just what he says,” Dunlap said of English’s comments. “You don't want to call it bulletin-board material, but any time you have a bunch of competitors [that] see something like that, it's going to spark some sort of fire.”
“After losses, coaches don't always say the smartest things,” Pitino said. “Include me in on that.”
Asked if being good at creating turnovers and offensive rebounding usually would be considered a compliment, Pitino replied, “Then he says ‘and that's all they do.’ He could have just not thrown that in.”
Pitino knew the Red Storm would be good but said he wasn’t certain how quickly St. John’s fans would begin turning out the way they have. With more than 16.000 tickets sold earlier in the week, he encouraged them to surpass the season-high 18,178 who came to the win over Villanova.
“Seeing the fans coming here early, it's really going to get everybody going more so than what [English] said,” Dunlap said. “I feel like the energy galvanized around [us in] New York City right now is really firing all [of us] up.”
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.
