St. John’s season headed toward turmoil after ugly loss to Seton Hall
After another ugly showing, a 66-60 home loss to local rival Seton Hall at the Garden, the Johnnies are headed in the wrong direction.
nypost.com
By Zach Braziller
It was only three months ago that St. John’s was picked to finish fourth in the Big East. The NCAA Tournament was viewed as a baseline at the time.
It feels as if that optimistic projection was made so much longer ago.
Seventeen games into this season, St. John’s looks incapable of either feat.
After another ugly showing, a 66-60 home loss to shorthanded Seton Hall on Saturday afternoon at the Garden, the Red Storm are headed in the wrong direction with difficult road games upcoming against the Pirates and No. 11 Villanova in the next week. A losing streak feels inevitable.
The Red Storm are 2-7 against power-conference teams and 0-6 in Quad 1 games. The NIT might even be a stretch at this rate. St. John’s can’t rebound, can’t finish around the basket and can’t beat a good team.
Coach Mike Anderson repeated many of his season-long talking points, calling his team a “work in progress” and attributing that to the nine new players on the roster. When reminded the end of January is approaching, he took some ownership of the Red Storm’s struggles.
“Some of that falls on me,” Anderson said. “I have to find out the right combination of guys that can put us in a position to win.
“I thought we should be further along than we are right now. I really do. It’s late January. … Some guys are not where I want them to be right now.”
This game was there for the taking. Seton Hall point guard and top perimeter threat Bryce Aiken was in concussion protocol and did not play. The Pirates (12-5, 3-4 Big East) played their “C,” game, shooting 33 percent from the field and committing 17 turnovers. Leading scorer Jared Rhoden was held to six points and the Pirates had no field goals after a 3-pointer by guard Myles Cale with 5:45 left in the second half.
Junior star Julian Champagnie was limited to nine points on 3-for-14 shooting to snap his 47-game double-digit-scoring streak. The sophomore duo of Dylan Addae-Wusu and Posh Alexander were a combined 4-for-23 from the field. The duo was far too frequently blocked on ill-advised drives into the lane against Seton Hall’s 7-foot-2 center, Ike Obiagu (seven blocks).
“We’ve definitely got to figure it out, because that obviously isn’t good enough,” said reserve forward Aaron Wheeler, who continued his improved play of late with 13 points, seven rebounds, three assists and three blocks.
It was reminiscent of the loss to Connecticut on Jan. 12, when St. John’s was blocked 14 times. The Red Storm didn’t make an adjustment, though Anderson said the plan was to kick the ball out. That didn’t happen nearly enough. They also didn’t do anything to free up Champagnie, the ig East’s leading scorer.
Cale, who finished with 21 points and nine rebounds, said he watched how Creighton defended against Champagnie on Wednesday and said it was “a little easier” to guard a star player without having to run around screens.
We’ve got to have somebody to come in and absorb some of the pressure,” Anderson said.
“One of the things I’ve always prided our team on is we got multiple options out there, and right now those options are not doing what they are capable of doing.”
The game turned at the end of the first half, after St. John’s coughed up the ball instead of holding it for the final shot. Seton Hall called time out and got a wide open Tray Jackson 3-pointer at the buzzer, a shot on which St. John’s didn’t appear ready to defend. That started a 14-4 run that gave the Pirates the lead for good. Twice, the Johnnies got within two, but could never get over the hump for a myriad of reasons.
The result was another lost afternoon that included a fitting cap to the defeat: A “Let’s go Pirates” chant in the final seconds on St. John’s homecourt.
