Over Analysts of St. John’s Exhibition Victory

Closing Notes

Mandatory Credit: Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports

St. John’s only out rebounded SF State 40 to 33. Not only is that frustrating for that one game, it’s troubling for down the road. Say what you want about the programs in the new version of the Big East, but they are still going to play Big East brand basketball. St. John’s needs to get tougher, rebound better and find ways to be physical inside the paint. Again, some of that will be fixed when Obepka comes back, but Sampson (who didn’t even attempt to get back on defense at times) has to help.

Sir’Dominic Pointer really attacked the rim. This is good news for multiple reasons. The biggest being that he ended up going to the line pretty often. More importantly than that, though, he didn’t settle for mid-range jumpers — something he seemed to do a bit too much last season.

Jamal Branch only played seven minutes. Many assumed Lavin would find a way for he and Jordan to get on the floor at the same time. I guess we should all know better what happens when we assume. Although, Lavin is going to tinker with his lineups and rotations all the way through the exhibition and non-conference schedules — don’t expect the minutes to be spread around like they were last night very long.

Finally — and really more of a personal note to the reader — this is just one exhibition game. Yes. I knowingly over analyzed it, but that is what we need to do while telling the story of St. John’s. Even with that being said, however, we shouldn’t go nuts because Hooper didn’t play as much as most expected or Sampson still looks jumper happy. What we should be, though, is a little more cautiously optimistic about this St. John’s team. With all the hype and expectations growing as the season was nearing, they will likely now be tempered a bit.

Which is probably a good thing.

______

Joseph, Twitter @JosephNardone