St. John's basketball: 5 biggest takeaways exiting loss against UConn

There were five major takeaways from the St. John's basketball loss against No. 5 UConn in Hartford

Dec 23, 2023; Hartford, Connecticut, USA; St. John's Red Storm guard RJ Luis Jr. (12) drives the
Dec 23, 2023; Hartford, Connecticut, USA; St. John's Red Storm guard RJ Luis Jr. (12) drives the | David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
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3. Joel Soriano Needs More Shots

This one feels obvious. Joel Soriano needs the ball more.

The captain only took five shots against UConn, who was playing without potential All-American Donovan Clingan, and still finished with a team-high 14 points.

Teams are going to strategize ways to get the ball out of his hands or make it very difficult for the Johnnies to feed its center in the paint, but St. John's has to get creative on getting its best player more shot attempts.

Soriano has led the Red Storm in scoring in all but two games this season and the five shot attempts against the Huskies tied the fewest he had in a game all year, which happened previously against North Texas.

The Big East is still a big man's conference and St. John's has to let its all-conference caliber player set the tone going forward, which should happen in the team's final non-conference game on Saturday afternoon (12:00 p.m. ET, FoxSports1) against a small Hofstra squad.