There was a very short holiday break in Queens with the St. John’s basketball team and the hope is that it serves the team well in the long run.
After the Johnnies returned home from its thrilling buzzer beater victory on December 20 against Providence, players were allowed to return home on December 21 for its holiday break, but it wasn’t anything more than a weekend away from the court.
Deivon Smith said after the Red Storm’s victory over the Friars that he was going to push Rick Pitino to give the team an extra day off during its break, but the Hall of Famer didn’t budge.
Pitino had his players reconvene in New York for practice on Monday night for practice on December 24 and practiced again on Christmas Day in preparation for its final non-conference matchup on December 28 against Delaware, but more importantly its New Year’s Eve showdown at Creighton.
“We got four days of practicing, individuals, skill work,” Smith said after the Johnnies 97-76 victory over Delaware. “We prepped for both [Delaware and Creighton], honestly, because they shoot the 3-ball well.”
The entire team had Christmas dinner together at Fogo de Chao in Queens following practice.
St. John’s (11-2, 2-0 Big East) showed very little signs of rust in its return to the court following Christmas after shooting 60.9-percent from the field and 66.7-percent from 3-point range and its players believe that the schedule was set perfect for them not to be waiting around too long for its next game.
“I think it was good to schedule a game right before we really get into the Big East,” RJ Luis explained. “It was a good game to get under our belt to get rid of some rust we may have built up over the little break.”
On the other hand, Creighton (8-5, 1-1 Big East) has not played since December 21 when it hit 14-of-25 3-pointers in an 86-79 victory at home against Villanova. It’s shooting from the outside will be the determining factor in who wins on Tuesday afternoon (4:00 p.m. ET, Peacock) in Omaha.
“It’s going to be a fun test…The only motivation is that we are trying to win the whole league, we’re trying to win big, we’re trying to go dancing in March.”