Rick Pitino tinkered with the St. John’s basketball starting lineup prior to its last game against William & Mary and now he’s looking to solidify things before the team heads to Las Vegas next week.
Dylan Darling was inserted as the starting point guard while Oziyah Sellers slid into his natural role of shooting guard. Pitino also put sophomore forward Ruben Prey on the floor to begin the game.
For Darling, nothing is expected to change over the next week in regard to his role.
“I think you guys really underrate Dylan [Darling],” Pitino explained. “He’s got the best credentials of anyone coming in here.”
“His credentials are much higher than just about anybody…I have absolutely no reservations at all that he could play against anybody, anytime, anywhere.”
As he normally does, Rick Pitino said on Wednesday afternoon that he plans to still adjust the starters, but he will have Joson Sanon next to Darling, Sellers, Bryce Hopkins, and Zuby Ejiofor on Thursday night against Bucknell.
It’ll leave Ian Jackson and Dillon Mitchell coming off the bench, something that the Hall of Famer is very excited about.
“I’m bringing him in off the bench,” Pitino said about Mitchell, who he named a team co-captain on Tuesday. “In the end, if we have a successful season, he going to be the Sixth Man of the Year…He’s such a spark off the bench. He’s such a spark in practice.”
“Outside of Zuby [Ejiofor], he’s one of the most valuable players on the team and we don’t need him in foul trouble. At the end of the game, we need his defense, we need his ballhandling ability. He’s a point forward. He’s somebody that puts a lot of pressure on the other team.”
St. John’s has used three different starting lineups in three games, and it’ll be four against the Bison, although that doesn’t bother Pitino who has said that the starting lineup is the “irrelevant” things in basketball.