St. John's win at West Virginia taught us a lot about Rick Pitino's team
Rick Pitino, St. John's head coach during game against Holy Cross at Carnesecca Arena on Saturday, Nov. 25, 2023. Credit: Errol Anderson
St. John’s game at West Virginia on Friday night was an obstacle course. The Red Storm confronted their first complication before it even started when RJ Luis Jr. was ruled out because of shin splints. And once the game tipped off, the hurdles kept coming.
They couldn’t find their stroke on three-pointers.
They didn’t adjust to a game being called tightly and key players got into foul trouble. The Mountaineers kept getting to the free-throw line, 43 times in all. Chris Ledlum and Daniss Jenkins fouled out.
That St. John’s emerged with a 79-73 road win before a hostile crowd of 10,781 at WVU Coliseum in Morgantown speaks volumes about this team’s potential, especially when one considers that it also beat a strong Utah team in Charleston, South Carolina.
Beating power conference teams away from home is something St. John’s is going to have to do, and it’s been a while since it could do that consistently. How far back would one have to go to find a Red Storm team that did? The Shamorie Ponds era? The D’Angelo Harrison-Sir’Dominic Pointer days? The Dwight Hardy team?
“You know how many close games . . . we could have won, but we didn’t,” Joel Soriano told reporters in Morgantown after scoring a career-high 24 points. “I know our team is built for it. We’ve got a lot of tough guys, guys that want it a lot.”
Rick Pitino’s Red Storm — who have won four of five — possess a bunch of qualities that made winning Friday night’s game possible and that could bode well for this season as this team continues to develop.
St. John’s (5-2) has poise under pressure because Pitino brought in older, experienced players to join veteran returner Soriano. It has enough quality in its depth to weather the sort of adversity it encountered against the Mountaineers, with four players coming off the bench to play 10 minutes or more. And it has guys who can make big plays aside from the obvious quartet of Soriano, Jenkins, Ledlum and Jordan Dingle.
Glenn Taylor Jr. and Nahiem Alleyne were the ones who delivered the Red Storm to victory on Friday. Taylor tapped out an offensive rebound to Alleyne for a layup and a four-point lead with 1:33 to play, then made a driving layup for a five-point lead with 1:02 left. Dingle found Alleyne for a three-point dagger that made it 77-70 with 20 seconds remaining.
More to the point, this team is only going to get stronger. There are 14 players who had never played together, and they seem to work better as a unit with every game. One could see more of Pitino’s brand of basketball emerging as the Red Storm defended the three-point line, pushed the pace against a more plodding opponent and tired out the Mountaineers with their press to the point that they missed seven free throws in the final 6:16.
The Luis injury is, as Pitino called it, “a bad break,” but he should provide a big lift when he returns in January. In the previous game, the 6-7 forward returned from a broken hand and showed he can impact a game in many ways with 14 points, four rebounds and three steals.
St. John’s has talented players, but it isn’t ready to overwhelm the Big East opponents it will begin facing in a little less than three weeks. In fact, to read between the lines of Pitino’s words on Friday night, the Red Storm might never become a team that does. St. John’s led West Virginia by nine with a little more than five minutes to play and fell into a one-possession game in the final two minutes.
“This is a tough place to play,” Pitino said. “We’re coming away with a six-point victory — it’s a great victory. We’re not going to pull away from too many people. That’s not what’s going to happen with our team.”
Still, it’s starting to look as if St. John’s has enough to win close games, even when facing adversity. Enough willingness to do the little things and execute a game plan. Enough players who can make a big play. Enough mental toughness to negotiate obstacles.
And that’s as much as any team can ask for at this stage of a season.
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.
