11/24 - St. John's *Neutral*
Record: 3-2
- Again, another tough matchup that I think favors the opposition in this case. Just to get it out of the way, I think they have the better coach, obviously, Pitino is a legend and I really like the way he has this St. John's team playing, and thought they should have made the tournament last year. This is less of a shot at CMW, more of paying respect to a legend of the coaching world. This is a good team and like all Pitino teams,they are going to be fast, athletic, and up in our grill, and I am sure they will give us a taste of the full court press and 2-3 zone. They are going to play very hard. Their biggest weakness, which last year and this year, goes against the norm of Rick Pitino and what we will need to capitalize on is their shooting, particularly their outside shooting. Last year they shot 177th in the nation in 3pt % and were 214th in 3pt attempts. As I will touch on later, this will be a limiting factor for this Red Storm team.
Moving on to the roster, I think St Johns has better guards, and I think in Kadary Richmond and Devion Smith, they have the two best players on the court. Richmond, a big guard at 6 '6 205, uses his size and strength very well. He is a great finisher around the rim and gets to the rim with ease, where he attempts a majority of his shots. He can back down smaller guards, goes after bigs on switches, can drive and finish extremely well around the basket with the left and right hand, is very athletic and uses that to his strength in transition, good off the dribble and moves well off the ball; I hope you get the image I am painting. He is a great player and between him and Kam Jones on back to back nights, we are going to have our hands full defensively. On top of this, he is a very good playmaker, finds the open man, and due to the sheer attention he draws from the defense, he is very good at hitting the open man when he sees a lot of double teams and hedges, especially off screens. His glaring weakness is his shooting. He was one of the worst catch and shoot guards last year, and saw a dip in his normally "okay" 3 point %. His mid-range is alright, and definitely something I think CMW needs to stress, we want him taking that mid range rather than getting downhill. Again, very good with the ball in his hands, great finisher, good defender as he uses his size to his advantage. Then there is Devion Smith. Smith, from Grayson HS in GA, has bounced around and is a super senior like Richmond, ( I actually had the chance to not only watch him play in HS but play against him), and is uber-athletic. He can jump out of the gym, dunks the ball hard, quick, and just very athletic. Smith is a wonderful playmaker, averaged close to 7 assists per game last year. Like Richmond, he excelled around the rim, whereas Richmond used his size, Smith uses his athleticism to elevate above the rim. He also really struggles to shoot the outside shot, so do not let last year's "40% from 3" fool you. He is a great rebounder for his size, and plays hard. He is also not as good a defender as Richmond. Both Richmond and Smith are triple double threats every single night, and I believe Smith actually tied the single season triple double record last year at Utah for the Pac-12. Overall, Smith and Richmond are the headline of this St John's team, and Pitino will love them.
The rest of the roster looks as follows, Simeon Welcher is a good young guard, who was a 4-5 star guard in HS and should see an improved role this year, as he did not play much as a freshman. I think their bigs are going to be questionable and besides their shooting their next biggest issue. I know the USC transfer Vince Iwuchukwu has a supposed high ceiling, and R.J Luis is probably their best returning big, but I am not sold. I actually really like Luis's game. I think he has good touch around the rim, slashes and finishes hard, and is athletic, and I think he will be an All-Big East player this year. I think Brady Dunlap provides good spacing, but not much else. Khaman Maker is a 7 foot 3-4 star they bring in from HS but looks like he will need time to develop. I think their bigs and depth are okay, but they lose Soriano and Ledlum, who I think they will miss a lot. The guard from North Texas looks to be solid, but I don't know much about him. Smith and Richmond were some of the worst catch and shoot 3 ball guards in the country last year, and outside of Brady Dunlap and maybe the North Texas transfer (Aaron Scott), I think they struggle to shoot the ball. With that being said, they seem to have a very similar build to us, I think both teams will have good depth, good guards, young and raw athletic bigs, and are not great shooting teams. This game will be close, and I think it will be a very very fun one. I think they have slightly better pure scorers and playmakers in Richmond and Smith so I will give them the edge here, but this should be a one to two possession game all the way through and a great chance at a quality win if we can shoot the ball well.
Record: 3-2