The St. John’s basketball team has hit the first true crossroad in its season entering Tuesday’s matchup (6:00 p.m. ET, FS1) against Harvard (6-6).
It can either try and respond in a tricky spot awaiting its Christmas break or continue to allow things to trend negatively.
The Johnnies (7-4, 1-0 Big East) are now unranked following its loss against Kentucky on Saturday in Atlanta after being as high as No. 5 in the preseason poll. It went 2-4 in against power conference competition in its non-Big East schedule, blowing second half leads in all four of the games.
“I feel like every person has to look themselves in the mirror and just realize that in order to have a successful season we have to be able to make some changes in our character, in ourselves personally,” Zuby Ejiofor said after the defeat to the Wildcats.
“Everybody has to be committed to doing whatever it takes to win, as we did last year. Today, it really didn’t go exactly as planned, as far as just being the more physical team and getting those key rebounds.”
The issues have been a theme over the opening two months of the season – lack of a true point guard, rebounding, and defense.
“They're a great group of guys. I love them, completely love them,” Rick Pitino said on Saturday. “Are they a great team? No, they're not a great team. But we can be a good team, and we can get better and better and better.”
“I don't pay attention to how everybody rates it. This is the problem with today's world is you've got eight new players. What can you do to make them better by the end of the year?”
St. John’s already has its back up against a wall in terms of NCAA Tournament seeding. It’s non-conference defeats leave its resume lacking and there will be few opportunities in the Big East to land marquee victories.
“You've just got to put the team together and see what happens,” Pitino added. “But I think by the end of the year, we'll be a formidable, good basketball team. Right now, we're not, but I think by the end of the year we can become that.”
St. John’s cannot afford to let Harvard hang around in Queens in a game the Red Storm must avoid falling into the stereotypical trap before league play really gets rolling on New Year’s Eve.