St. John’s Still a Work In Progress, But Better

St. John’s headlined the Legend’s Classic this week and took care of business, beating California 82-79 Monday night and outlasting VCU 87-86 in overtime last night.

The Red Storm (5-0) were far from flawless in their two victories. It took them until the last seconds of regulation to finish off Cal - last place in the PAC 12 last season and picked to finish last again this season - and needed overtime and multiple clutch shots from Shamorie Ponds to get by a VCU squad picked to finish 5^th in the Atlantic 10.

The Johnnies are a talented, if small, offensive unit led by the junior Ponds and junior returnees Marvin Clark II and Justin Simon. Newcomers Mustapha Heron, LJ Figueroa and Mikey Dixon give St. John’s an offensively talented nucleus that should be able to play with anyone in the country.

6-foot-9 Center, Sedee Keita, the Red Storm’s lone true big on the roster, is out with a knee injury and is expected back in five weeks.

This week at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, St. John’s showed off their offensive talent and versatility, but also showed that they may not yet be ready for prime time. Defensively, they allowed unheralded Cal to shoot 57% from the field, including 44% from beyond the 3-point line. While Cal made some tough shots, St. John’s also exhibited “Swiss cheese defense” (shout out to Clyde Frazier), allowing way too many easy forays into the paint and uncontested layups.

The following night, the defense was improved versus VCU, but mental lapses often allowed the Rams to stay in the game and take leads late in regulation and overtime.

However, a win is a win is a win. And maybe those preseason prognostications were wrong and Cal and VCU will prove to be better than was thought.

St. John's coach Chris Mullin addressing the media after the Red Storm's victory over VCU.

“My thing is this, we played two really good teams that played well, they made shots,” St. John’s coach Chris Mullin said after the game. “I mean from a coach’s standpoint sometimes you think you can play better defense, you can contest better and that’s all true, but they still gotta make them… So give our opponents a lot of credit, but to our credit, we were in some tough situations the last two nights.”

“We fought back and didn’t hang our heads,” Mullin continued. “That’s really where the experience comes in. They truly believe they can win the game and I don’t think that was the fact the last two years.”

Yes, it is easy to get caught up in the influx of talent and experience now on the Red Storm’s roster and expect them to easily win the games they are favored in. But, teams take time to build and there is no doubt progress is being made. As Mullin eluded to, it is highly likely that St. John’s would have lost one or both of those games last year.

Ponds, who scored 32 and 35 points in the two wins respectively, made every big shot and big play the Johnnies needed. He looks even better than last year and is clearly one of the better guards in the country. Heron is a big time player and Figueroa is better than advertised.

St. John’s is not there yet. They are not an NCAA Tournament team yet. They are not the best team in the Big East, yet. But, the pieces are there, the experience is there and most importantly, the belief is there.

Iowa's Fran McCaffery On NCAA Tournament: "There's no such thing as an upset."

Everybody loves the NCAA Tournament, or almost everybody. You can find a hater or two out there in the twitterverse if you try hard enough. But for the most part, it is a beloved event.

Why? Easy: the love of March Madness stems from fans’ love of the upset. We all love to see David come through from time to time and take down Goliath. The NCAA Tournament provides ample opportunity for these surprise results.

This year, the Tournament’s first round did not disappoint.

On Thursday, Ivy League Yale took down Big 12 power Baylor, Arkansas Little Rock came from behind to beat one of the Big Ten’s finest in Purdue, and in a slight upset, Wichita State pretty easily took care of Arizona.

Friday produced even gaudier results. Hawaii, who many didn’t realize fielded a basketball team, upset a talented, though injury bugged California team. 14 seed Stephen F. Austin took it to 3 seed West Virginia and in one of the biggest upsets of all time, 15 seed Middle Tennessee State took down mighty Tom Izzo and Michigan State.

Insert your favorite bracket busted joke here.

However, according to Iowa coach Fran McCaffery, there are no upsets in this tournament. That’s right, those random occurrences that we all love and root for do not really exist. They are figments of our imagination.

“There’s no such thing as an upset and I mean that sincerely,” McCaffery said after Iowa’s last second victory over Temple in Brooklyn. “I’ve had lower seeded teams that won. You’ve seen higher seeded teams lose.”

Iowa coach Fran McCaffery

“It’s really difficult [to win an NCAA Tournament game],” he explained. “You’re playing somebody that you haven’t played, on a neutral site. You’re trying to figure them out in a short period of time.”

Hmm, maybe he has a point, especially nowadays.

The mid-major teams – the good ones that end up in the NCAA Tournament – tend to be more experienced, upper-class dominant squads that have been together as a unit and with their coach for a number of years. That’s a sharp contrast from the now typical major program that is dependent on highly ranked freshmen, likely to leave the program before they are ready to take it to any significant heights.

Stephen F. Austin coach, Brad Underwood, sees some advantages to building a team at the mid-major level.

“We’re able to get better players [than in the past] and keep them for their career and have seniors, so there’s maturity,” he said after his team dispatched of West Virginia Friday night.

“One of the biggest discrepancies in college sports is the difference between an 18-year old freshman and a 22-year old senior. The maturity level is drastically different.”

So maybe there are no upsets and these are just a collection of good teams knocking each other off.

That’s likely the case, but don’t expect to hear that narrative. We don’t want to.

We love the upsets, real or not.

Brooklyn Hoops Holiday Invitational

Brooklyn and the Barclays Center have quickly become a hotspot for college basketball.

This year, teams such as Duke, Virginia, Villanova, VCU, Michigan, Oregon, Stanford, UNLV and Temple have traveled to the borough of Brooklyn for key non-conference match-ups.

Monday night, the beat continued in the Brooklyn Hoops Holiday Invitational, with a Big East/ACC match-up, preceded by a New York City bragging rights game.

The latter featured two teams from the Bronx that have struggled to varying degrees. Manhattan (4-7) from the MAAC took on Fordham (3-6) from the Atlantic 10.

Manhattan and coach Steve Masiello have struggled to get it going this season, after making the NCAA Tournament last season and putting a scare into Louisville in the first round. The Jaspers' three wins coming into Monday night's game were against three of college basketball's lesser outfits, whose combined record is 4-33. Luckily for Manhattan, Monday's game was versus another such opponent.

There were unusually high expectations for Fordham this season, after they secured one of their biggest freshman signings in many years, nabbing Eric Paschall from Dobbs Ferry, NY. They also expected a major contribution from sophomore, Jon Severe, after his stellar freshman season. However, Severe left the team indefinitely due to a family issue, and while Paschall has lived up to the hype, he has struggled a bit due to a lack of help around him.

Manhattan took full advantage Monday night. The Jaspers pressured Fordham for the entirety of the game and double-teamed Paschall in the half court to get it out of his hands. Paschall was held to 7 points on 2-8 shooting, as Manhattan coasted to a 71-57 victory. The Jaspers were paced by Emmy Andujar's 14 points and 9 rebounds.

In the nightcap, Miami and Providence, two teams with NCAA Tournament aspirations, bumped heads in a spirited contest.

Both teams have been up and down early in the season.

Providence started strong, winning their first six games, including a neutral court win over Notre Dame, but hit a major road block in Lexington, losing to #1 Kentucky. Though the Friars were actually competitive with the Wildcats for most of the game, the loss, as well as some nagging injuries, seemed to have a residual affect. Providence suffered back-to-back bad losses to Boston College and Brown. However, Ed Cooley's squad regrouped and had won three straight entering Monday's match-up with Miami.

Miami's season has been similar. They won their first eight games, including wins at Florida and over Illinois. But, in their next three games, they lost two inexplicable home games by double-digits to Green Bay (68-55) and Eastern Kentucky (72-44). So, Miami came into Brooklyn looking to right the ship.

Providence would have none of it.

The Friars, led by the playmaking of Kris Dunn, jumped out to an early 21-12 lead midway through the first half and maintained a 9-point lead until the 4:20 mark. But, Miami fought back, behind solid play from Angel Rodriguez, and tied the game on a Shelden McClellan bank shot at the halftime buzzer.

In the second half it was all Friars. They scored the first eight points of the half and never looked back. LeDontae Henton, Providence's leading scorer, took control. He scored on drives to the basket, drilled perimeter jump shots and took advantage of Miami's lax transition defense, scoring on numerous fast break opportunities.

Providence took their biggest lead of 72-55 at the 4:42 mark and went on to beat Miami 76-62.

The Friars had a balanced offensive attack with four players scoring in double figures, led by Henton's 25 points and Dunn's 15 points along with 13 assists.

Coach Cooley was pleased after the game.

"I thought our leaders were big-time tonight." He would not go so far as to concede Monday's game was their best performance so far this season, citing the sloppy way they ended the game.

Best game or not, it was a wonderful performance from the Friars that will likely pay dividends down the road in March when the Selection Committee starts looking at resumes. Not to mention, the confidence and momentum a game like this provides, heading into Big East Play.

For Miami, a season that started so brightly, now looks daunting as they head into ACC play having lost three of four.



This post originally appeared on College Hoops Daily, The College Basketball Blog.