One of the biggest questions for the St. John’s basketball team entering the postseason is its health and the status of guard Deivon Smith, who continues to manage a shoulder injury suffered in January against Villanova.
After playing when the Johnnies clinched the Big East regular season championship on March 1 against Seton Hall, Smith was held out of the season finale on the road in Milwaukee in which the Red Storm won on an overtime buzzer beater.
Smith had not practiced during St. John’s bye week but returned to the court on Sunday for a player development session before sitting out of practice on Monday. He practiced on Tuesday and Wednesday and the hope is that he can take the floor with St. John’s on Thursday afternoon (12:00 p.m. ET, Peacock) when it begins the Big East Tournament.
“I don’t know if he’ll play tomorrow, we’ll see,” Rick Pitino said at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday afternoon as he was awarded with his first ever Big East Coach of the Year.
“He was never the same Deivon. He was always worried about getting hit again. More than anything else he’s got to get over the mental part of getting hit again.”
After sitting out of St. John’s loss against Villanova, Smith averaged 11.6 points per game on 38.1-percent shooting from the field in the subsequent five matchups but was just 6-for-22 in his final two regular season games.
“Once he gets over the mental aspect of that, he’ll be fine, and he’ll be the great player that he was in the first half of the season.”
“He looked okay,” the Hall of Famer said about Smith’s performance in practice. “I think he’s rusty. He hasn’t practiced in a long time.”
Sophomore guard Simeon Wilcher started in Deivon Smith’s place on Saturday against Marquette and delivered 13 points on 6-of-12 shooting including the assists on the game winning basket.
The rest of St. John’s available players are healthy and ready to go for the postseason.