One of the biggest reasons why the St. John’s basketball program had the top ranked transfer class in the country was because of its additions in the backcourt, but things are still a work in progress for the Red Storm.
After allowing 103 points last week against Alabama, which was spearheaded by its guards, the Johnnies are hoping a week off and extended practice time will help its guards gel faster.
Head coach Rick Pitino mentioned again on Friday that he believes one of the biggest differences in St. John’s loss to the Crimson Tide was that their guards have played together for multiple years while the Red Storm’s have only been with each other for a few months.
A major starting point in getting its backcourt in a groove would be unlocking Stanford transfer Oziyah Sellers, who started to come to life in the second half of last week’s loss to the Crimson Tide.
Sellers, a 40-percent 3-point shooter last season with the Cardinal, only scored six points in the team’s season opener against Quinnipiac and attempted just two shots in the first half against Alabama.
Then, he went for 12 points following halftime in the Red Storm’s comeback bid. Still, he has not made a 3-pointer yet this season and has only taken three attempts this season.
“I think he has to shoot more open 3’s,” Pitino explained. “He’s our best shooter by far.”
The Hall of Famer added that Sellers continues to put up “scary” shooting numbers during player development sessions, but it has yet to translate to games.
“He passed up about three or four open 3’s in the last game and he can’t pass then up. It hurts us as a basketball team shooting so few 3’s.”
Pitino attributed the shooting hesitation to getting accustomed to a new style of basketball but is confident that the light bulb will go off sooner rather than later for Sellers and he will make a major impact on the team.
St. John’s is hoping Oziyah Sellers is ready to pull the trigger not only on Saturday night (6:00 p.m. ET, truTV) against William & Mary but when the team travels to Las Vegas next week for the Players Era Festival.