Or boogie fland

Two big OOC matchups remain. They need to go 2-0 against Kentucky and Ole Miss to even feel ok heading into big east play.

I think that’s very doable, but moreso I’m looking for the 2 issues above to be addressed

What to do late game:

Put the ball in Bryce Hopkins hands!

He’s a matchup nightmare for most defenders 1 on 1. If he gets doubled he can kick the ball out to sellers or Sanon for a 3. Plus if he has the ball Zuby can camp out for rebounds and putbacks. This also works against man or a zone.

Now the late game issue, which hurt us in these close games.

We’ve tried a bunch of options for late game/end of half situations: sellers, Jackson, Zuby, even Casper pohto. The lack of a true PG has hurt most here

I think there are 2 ways to fix the bad guard defense and rebounding:

1) play a 2 guard lineup with mitchell at the 3 more. He’s an insane defender and rebounder at the 3 so there’s less pressure on the guards

2) Jackson needs to play more! He’s the guy with upside and the positional size we need

In my view there are 2 major issues to fix and get this team ready for a deep march run:

1: defense and rebounding from the guard.

2: defining our go to guy in late game situations

How do we fix it:

For all the talk of the Johnnies PG issues ( @norlander.bsky.social can’t let Parrish talk about the “next great St. John’s point guard” ever again), ball handling hasn’t been a huge issue and the offense looks ok. They actually are doing well playing positionless on the offensive side

Kenpom and Torvik numbers both tell the same story, this is a surprising top 10 offense for Pitino, but the defense is in the 30s so not good enough for a team with final four aspirations.

Johnnies lost to those 3 top 13 teams by a combined 10 points. But they’re 1-4 versus top 25 teams. 1-3 if you don’t include Michigan. Things would feel a lot different if they beat either Alabama or ISU, but they have not had an answer in close games

St. John’s has played some really good teams. @kenpom.com ranked #1 (exh), 4, 13, 23, and 25. They have the #23 SOS, which is 4th in the kenpom top 25.

It’s always the answer

Jameis a blast to watch especially when the game doesn’t mean anything