Zuby Ejiofor said after the St. John’s basketball loss against Kentucky two weeks ago that everyone on the team had to look in the mirror but now the Red Storm have reached a point in its season no one expected this early.
The Johnnies (9-5, 2-1 Big East) dropped its fifth game of the year against Providence on Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden and have held a second half lead in each loss. In two of its losses, including against the Friars, they led by as many as ten points in the second half.
Something has to change, and it must come quickly for the Johnnies.
“Now our backs are to the wall very early in the season,” Rick Pitino said following the 77-71 defeat.
“We’re going to lose games,” he continued. “We shouldn’t have lost tonight, but we are going to lose games. This is not last year’s team.”
Last year, St. John’s had a bunch of players unafraid of the big moment. Kadary Richmond, RJ Luis, and Zuby Ejiofor were all comfortable coming up with the big play in the big spot.
Until the NCAA Tournament, no stage was too big, and no lights were too bright.
This year is a completely different story and it’s been on display too often. Aside from Ejiofor, no one has emerged as a ‘stopper’ for St. John’s. No one is able to come up with the big shot to stop an opponent’s surge or seize control of the game.
It’s what made a season ago so magical. Richmond and Luis were killers and calming forces when waters got rough, this year that’s apparently absent.
“We have high hopes, but what I’m noticing right now is a team that has a lot of frailties,” Pitino continued. “And it showed tonight for the first time that guys were just worried about the missed shot rather just being meticulous about scouting because we did some things from a scouting standpoint that we didn’t all year.”
Providence ended the game on a 14-3 run as St. John’s didn’t make a field goal in the final 3:19, landing its first Quad 3 loss of the season. Inside the final two minutes when trailing by a possession, St. John’s went to Joson Sanon twice, missing a 3-pointer each time, and an Ejiofor missed 3-pointer when trailing by four with less than a minute to go.
Sanon finished 1-of-12 from the floor and 1-for-5 from 3-point range.
“You got to win – when I say, ‘back to the wall’ it’s because our record’s not good,” Pitino explained. “We lost at home, so it’s not a good situation, but we got to dig out…Anybody in this league can beat us – anybody. There’s not a team in this league that can’t beat us.”
St. John’s isn’t going to make a midseason roster addition that many other teams around the country have done, and it’s possible that will not help at this moment, but the biggest thing that the Johnnies lack is a failed replacement for the mentality of Kadary Richmond and RJ Luis.