The St. John’s basketball team is likely to still be undermanned on Saturday night against Seton Hall (6-11, 1-5 Big East) as starting guard Deivon Smith is doubtful to play, according to head coach Rick Pitino.
Smith suffered a bruised shoulder in the Red Storm’s victory over Villanova last Saturday and missed its comeback win against Georgetown on Tuesday.
“Deivon probably will not play,” Pitino said on Friday afternoon. “I don’t know when he will play…he’ll give it a shot, but he’s still in pain.”
St. John’s (15-3, 6-1 Big East) looked lost without its key backcourt piece during the second half against Villanova before RJ Luis seized control of the action and really struggled in the first half of its comeback victory over the Hoyas.
“I’m not going to play anybody who’s in pain,” he added.
Smith has not practiced since suffering the injury but has tried to do individual shooting drills, which is when he experiences the most pain.
Simeon Wilcher started in Smith’s place and is poised to start again against the Pirates while freshmen Jaiden Glover and Lefteris Liotopoulos are also expected to see an increase of minutes.
There will also be more on the plate of Kadary Richmond, who will be playing his first game against his former team since transferring to St. John’s during the offseason.
“We are nowhere near as good of a team without Deivon…[Georgetown] was our poorest first half of the season by far,” Pitino explained.
“Our pace was awful; our defensive rebounding was awful. He’s a very unique player.”
Deivon Smith is averaging 10.8 points, 5.7 rebounds, 4.4 assists, and 1.9 steals per game this season and despite the presence of dominant big man Zuby Ejiofor, Smith is the team leader in defensive rebounds per game at 4.8.
Tipoff is at 8:00 p.m. ET (FS1) inside the Prudential Center.