St. John's Aaron Scott could be the key to a title run — if he can avoid foul trouble
St. John's Red Storm guard Aaron Scott reacts after scoring a three-point basket against the Butler Bulldogs in the second half of a Big East Tournament quarterfinal at Madison Square Garden on Thursday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The unquestioned headline-grabbers this season for sixth-ranked St. John’s have been RJ Luis Jr., Zuby Ejiofor and Kadary Richmond, and the accolades they’ve received this week speak to it.
Luis and Ejiofor were named all-Big East first-teamers and Richmond a second-teamer. Ejiofor was voted the conference’s Most Improved Player and Richmond put up the first Red Storm triple-double in a quarter-century last weekend at Marquette.
St. John’s coach Rick Pitino has made a point that winning in the NCAA Tournament often isn’t about the stars. Winning is about the team, and sometimes it’s the guys who live just outside the spotlight who save a season.
Aaron Scott could be one of those guys — if he can stay on the court. The 6-7 forward is capable of being a huge contributor on both ends. He also has a penchant for getting into foul trouble. We got both of those Thursday in top-seeded St. John’s 78-57 quarterfinal trouncing of ninth-seeded Butler.
Scott started but was out with two fouls after only six minutes. He managed to stay in the game for 15 minutes in the second half and wreaked havoc with 12 of his 15 points, including a pair of three-pointers, and all of his career-high five steals.
Butler fell into a deep hole when St. John’s (28-4) went on an early 15-0 run, but at the start of the second half, the Bulldogs (14-19) were threatening to get back into things by cutting a margin that had been 17 to eight points.
Scott almost singlehandedly put an end to the threat. St. John’s scored the next 10 points in a 2:30 stretch in which the transfer from North Texas scored four of the points and made three steals that led directly to the other three baskets.
“He impacts winning all ways,” Richmond said. “He plays defense. He makes big shots when it’s time. He offensive rebounds. He just had his head all over the game today . . . He’s a difference-maker for us. A lot of people don’t mention him or speak about him, but he’s a big key to what we’ve been doing this year.”
“I feel like I impact winning, so I did feel good about the minutes I had on the court,” Scott said, “but obviously I got to stay out there and stop getting stupid fouls.”
Right now, getting contributions from Scott is more important than ever. Not because the Red Storm are vying to win the conference tournament title and perhaps earn a No. 2 seeding on Selection Sunday. And not because every NCAA Tournament game could be their last.
It’s because Deivon Smith continues to look hampered by the right shoulder injury that’s plagued him for two months.
Smith came off the bench and picked up two fouls in 13 first-half seconds. He logged 12 minutes in the second half but looked bothered. And he said opponents are targeting his injury.
“On screens where they’ve already got me, they’re putting a little extra on it,” he said.
“It’s bothering him more mentally than it will bother him physically,” Pitino said. “I’m sure it’s bothering him. He’s a tough kid, but you’ve got to get over the hump mentally, and that’s what he is really struggling with. He pays too much attention to it. He’s got to block it out of his mind, and it’s easier said than done to do that.”
Scott built his rep by being a tenacious defender. But on a team that scores few points on threes, he’s the team leader with 44.
He had 13 points and eight rebounds in the Feb. 23 win at Connecticut and had been quiet since. He tried to play but couldn’t go against Seton Hall because of a bothersome hamstring. He was healed in time for Saturday’s epic overtime win at Marquette but found foul trouble again there and played only 22 minutes.
“I am upset with myself,” Scott said. “My whole college career, I’ve had foul trouble just because how aggressive I played. Going into this year, I told myself, ‘I’ve got to stop fouling’ . . . but I wasn’t playing like how I usually play.
“I have always been a winning player — I make winning plays,” he added. “Sometimes it goes unnoticed, but I really don’t care because I know my teammates know what I bring to the team and I know the coaches know what I bring to the team.”
“Without him, we probably wouldn’t be here where we are now,” Richmond said. “He’s not getting the recognition he deserves for the stuff he does, but . . . it’s great to have a guy like that.”
Has Scott gone unnoticed or unrecognized? He’s certainly been unnoticeable for almost three weeks. But after seeing what he did on Thursday when he was in the game, everyone will be paying attention. He just needs to make sure he isn’t noticeable because he’s not in the game.
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.
