St. John’s capped a four-game homestand with its fourth straight victory Tuesday night, a less-than-impressive 65-47 win over Longwood of the Big South Conference.
For the second straight game, the Red Storm allowed a clearly inferior opponent to hang around, though unlike in Friday night’s win over Monmouth, they were in control much of the second half.
Tuesday marked the return from a one-game suspension of freshman Rysheed Jordan — more on him later — and also started an interesting few weeks for St. John’s, which will face major conference competition in three of its next four games.
Below are some thoughts on the win over Longwood:
Rysheed’s return: While the prized freshman didn’t exactly dazzle Tuesday night, he did show signs of the kind of playmaking ability Lavin and Co. envisioned when they signed the Philadelphia prep star in the spring.
After a shaky start, he did positive things with the ball, attacking the rim, finding open teammates for easy shots, or just moving the ball. I’d still like to see Jordan be more aggressive, particularly when it comes to penetrating rather than settling for jump shots.
Sir’Dominic Pointer had a good point about Jordan, saying Jordan hasn’t yet adjusted to the speed of the game. I wholeheartedly agree. He is still getting used to this level, the quickness and length of defenders, when he can dart through a lane, when to be patient. It’s coming.
Schedule beefs up: The junior varsity portion of the schedule is now over. We should get a better read on St. John’s over the next few weeks, beginning Friday with the Barclays Center Classic.
While the other three teams in the two-day tournament — Penn State, Ole Miss and Georgia Tech — aren’t elite, they are the first major conference foes the Johnnies will face since losing the season opener to Wisconsin. Here’s hoping St. John’s meets Ole Miss, picked to finish in the middle of the SEC, on Saturday. D’Angelo Harrison against Marshall Henderson, the Rebels’ fiery and off-the-wall shooting guard, would be worth the price of admission.
A week from Saturday the Red Storm will face Fordham, which is coming off a huge win over Manhattan and is much improved, followed by No. 8 Syracuse on Dec. 15 at the Garden, the highest-profile non-league game the Red Storm will play.
While the St. John’s players said all the right things about their unimpressive victories over Monmouth and Longwood, I got the feeling they weren’t up for either contest, and we will see a different St. John’s team this weekend in Brooklyn.