The message has been loud and clear from Rick Pitino to his St. John’s backcourt – if they want to win, they must rebound.
It’s something the Hall of Famer has been trying to hammer home since the No. 5 Red Storm dropped its final exhibition game of the preseason to No. 7 Michigan last week.
“The guards have to get tougher and grab the ball,” Pitino said after the overtime loss. “That was the most glaring weakness…and I’ve always had really good guards that rebound.”
Against the Wolverines, the combination of Joson Sanon, Oziyah Sellers, Ian Jackson, and Dylan Darling had just one rebound. In the prior exhibition against Towson, the same group of players recorded six rebounds, half of them coming from Darling.
“I’ve never had people this size not rebound the ball like this in two games – and even in practices,” Pitino continued of his assessment with his backcourt during his press conference on Friday.
He mentioned that the team has put in a “plus-minus system” in practice where players will get a positive grade for rebounds and calling out defensive switches, among other things, while earning a negative grade for the opposite.
The most improved player in St. John’s backcourt with the emphasis on rebounding has been Arizona State transfer Joson Sanon.
“He was the weakest component to that, and he’s improved immensely,” Pitino added.
Sanon averaged 3.4 rebounds per game last season with the Sun Devils.
“It’s something you can see every day in practice,” Dillon Mitchell explained of the team’s improvement. “I know coach has talked about our guards rebounding and we joke about it, now Joson’s in practice trying to grab every rebound.”
“That’s just another part of the guys being coachable, learning, trying to understand what’s going on.”
While St. John’s only plays four games in the opening 20 days of the season, the challenges will be strong against Amarri Monroe and Quinnipiac on Monday (6:30 p.m. ET, FS1) followed by a meeting against No. 17 Alabama on Saturday afternoon (12:00 p.m. ET, FS1).