In an alternate universe, Rick Pitino is touting his backcourt as among the country’s best.
St. John’s fans are preparing for a single-digit seed in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015. A bye in the Big East Tournament is all but a guarantee. A Sweet 16 run is considered realistic.
It could’ve all happened had Walter Clayton Jr. followed Pitino from Iona University to St. John’s.
Last season’s MAAC Player of the Year’s decision to spurn the Johnnies for Florida, his hometown school, had ripple effects that are still being felt.
Instead of Clayton, St. John’s landed Penn transfer Jordan Dingle, the second-leading scorer in the country last year who has fallen well short of expectations.
The 6-foot-2 Clayton, meanwhile, is leading Florida to the NCAA Tournament, averaging 16.3 points, 3.6 rebounds, 2.6 assists and shooting 36.3 percent from 3-point range. Tuesday night, while St. John’s was suffering yet another painful loss, their seventh in nine games, Clayton was guiding Florida past LSU. It was the Gators’ sixth win in seven games, which includes résumé-boosting victories over No. 13 Auburn and No. 22 Kentucky. Clayton was brilliant in those two wins, hitting 10 3-pointers and scoring a total of 43 points.
Dingle, meanwhile, has produced career-lows in scoring (10.4), field goal percentage (39.6) and 3-point percentage (30.3). The other main shooting guard, UConn transfer Nahiem Alleyne, has also struggled with consistency, shooting just 33.8 percent from downtown. As a team, St. John’s is 221st in the country in 3-point shooting at 32.9 percent.
This all reinforces how costly that recruiting miss has been. Now, it should be noted that there really wasn’t anything St. John’s could have done differently. Clayton wanted to be close to home — he grew up 145 miles from Gainesville, Fla. — and near his pregnant girlfriend, Tatiyana Burney, who gave birth in December to a baby girl. It nevertheless hurts because of the way this season has played out.
St. John’s is 5-6 in games decided by single figures. In contests in which the margin is six or fewer in the final five minutes, it is 3-8. The team doesn’t have a closer. It has been apparent throughout the season in several disappointing second-half performances. The Johnnies are 2-9 in Quad 1 games and have held halftime leads in six of those setbacks.
So much is being asked of Iona transfer Daniss Jenkins from a leadership, scoring and distributing standpoint. He seems to be wearing down late. It’s hard to fault him. It’s also hard not to imagine how this season would’ve gone had Clayton wound up in Queens like his Iona backcourt-mate.
They were dynamic together, interchangeable guards who led Iona to the NCAA Tournament. Behind the duo, the Gaels were the lone team to hold a halftime lead over eventual national champion Connecticut in the dance. Several times during the season, Pitino raved about them, saying they were as good as backcourt he’s ever coached, and up there among the best in the country.
Jenkins has been by far St. John’s best and most consistent player. Clayton has thrived at Florida, and is only getting better after a somewhat slow start.
There are plenty of what-ifs as this once-promising season seems destined for the NIT. What if AJ Storr, leading 20th-ranked Wisconsin in scoring, stayed? What if the staff was able to keep junior college transfer Yaxel Lendeborg and forward O’Mar Stanley, excelling at UAB and Boise State, respectively? What if St. John’s had found a way to win one of those close losses, particularly the one-point setbacks to No. 4 Marquette and No. 17 Creighton? What if center Joel Soriano continued to play at a high level instead of struggling so mightily over the last nine games?
The biggest what-if, however, the one that has haunted St. John’s, is losing out on Walter Clayton Jr. He is exactly what this team is missing.