Not only did the St. John’s basketball team have high expectations entering the season, but it looked to prove that it stacks up against some of the best team in the country at the Player Era Championship in Las Vegas this week.
So far, through a month of the season, the Johnnies have fallen short of both of its goals after exiting the desert with a win and two losses against No. 15 Iowa State, Baylor, and No. 21 Auburn.
The biggest issue thus far for the No. 14 Red Storm (4-3) has been its defense, which includes its loss to then No. 15 Alabama in the first week of the season after giving up 103 points.
Iowa State shot 44-percent from the floor and 41-percent from 3-point range as Auburn connected on 54.7-percent of its attempts – 64-percent in the second half – in its wins over St. John’s.
“This is a very average defensive team,” Rick Pitino said on Wednesday night after the loss to the Tigers. “They are not locked in like last year.”
“They’re new to each other and they’re going to get it or they’re going to continue losing. It’s a matter of wanting to get it, wanting to be a great defensive team. And if they do, they’ll get it, if not, they won’t. They’ll have a long season.”
The pressure will be put on the Red Storm in its two remaining marquee non-conference games against Ole Miss and No. 19 Kentucky after letting its previous three ranked matchups slip through its fingers.
St. John’s led in each loss during the second half but was unable to make plays down the stretch to secure the victory.
“I’ve been through this before,” Pitino added. “I never thought this was a great team from day one, defensively, but we have a lot of work to do on defense. We can get there, but it’s going to take a different mindset by some of our younger players that scoring is not the ultimate, it’s defense and you have to buy into it.”
One of the biggest issues for the Johnnies has been defensive rebounding, allowing an average of 17.2 offensive rebounds per game against its power conference competition.
“We’re not a great defensive team, we’re average at best, and we got to become a good defensive team before we become a great defensive team,” Pitino explained. “That’s something that takes a lot of buying into every little fundamental of defense from blocking out on.”
The Red Storm will hope nine days between games will help clean up some of its defensive woes as three of its next four games will be against high major teams in the Rebels, DePaul, and the Wildcats.