Virginia vs St. John's Basketball Preview

Virginia and 22nd ranked St. John’s look to bounce back from losses on a quick turnaround as they face off in the consolation game of the Baha Mar Hoops Championship in Nassau, Bahamas.  Tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 PM Eastern Friday, televised on CBS Sports Network. 

St. John’s lost a double-overtime thriller to 13th ranked Baylor in Thursday night’s opening game of the event.  While Virginia fell by a final score of 64-42 to 11th ranked Tennessee.  

About St. John’s

St. John’s is led by Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino, in his 2nd season at the helm.  Pitino has won a pair of national titles at Kentucky and Louisville.  He’s trying to become the first coach to lead six different programs to the NCAA Tournament. 

The Red Storm are 4-1 on the young season, suffering their first loss Thursday at the hands of Baylor.   Through five games, they rank 24th nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency and 12th on the defensive end.  The roster features a blend of four new transfer additions in the rotation to go along with several key returners from last year’s 20-win squad.  

St. John’s Personnel 

Pitino has built a very athletic team with lots of multi-positional players.  The line between guard and forward is blurry, especially once they dip into their bench, as they’ll rotate interchangeable pieces at the SF and PF spots.  Thursday’s starters were as follows. 

G - #5 Deivon Smith (6’0” super senior, Utah transfer, 10.4 points and 5.4 assists per game)

G - #7 Simeon Wilcher (6’4” sophomore, 10.0 points per game)

G - #1 Kadary Richmond (6’6” super senior, Seton Hall transfer, 9.8 points 6.2 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game)

F - #12 RJ Luis Jr (6’7” junior, 17.2 points and 7.4 rebounds per game)

F - #24 Zuby Ejiofor (6’9” junior, 11.2 points 5.8 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game)

Senior combo forward Aaron Scott (11.4 PPG), a North Texas transfer, came off the bench to pour in 20 points against Baylor.  And UVA will need to take notice when sophomore forward Brady Dunlap (9.2 PPG) enters the game.  He’s out there to shoot, hitting 53% from deep this season.  

Know The Shooters 

St. John’s isn’t a high volume three-point shooting team.  But as they showed by hitting 14 triples against Baylor, they’re capable of outbursts.  The unusual part is that most of their attempts come from frontcourt players, not guards. 

The ball will usually be in the hands of either Deivon Smith or Kadary Richmond.  Those are the creators.  Neither of them want to take a bunch of long jumpers.  Both are low volume three-point shooters, Richmond in particular.  They’re threats, low 30s career percentages, you can’t ignore them out there.  It’s just not what they do best, and they know it.  

Their shooting comes from the group of wings they’ll rotate in at the SF and PF positions.  Aaron Scott (43%) and Brady Dunlap (53%) lead the team in attempts, followed by starting forward RJ Luis Jr (35%).  That trio combined for 10 of their 14 made threes on Thursday.  

Matching Up

Kadary Richmond of St. John’s is a matchup nightmare, for just about everyone.  He’s a long 6’6” athlete with point guard skills.  Very crafty at using his size to his advantage.  The former Syracuse guard is nearly impossible to keep out of the lane, and just really good at making plays or finding open teammates.  Pitino loves running their offense through him.  

UVA will probably try to have forward Elijah Saunders defend Richmond, when the lineup allows.  That’s the tricky part, because it’ll only be situational.  More often, Andrew Rohde or Isaac McKneely will need to take on the challenge.  It’s a tough assignment for any of them.

On the other end, Richmond is their top perimeter defender.  Expect McKneely to be dealing with his length for most of the night.  

Show Progress

No sugar coating it, Virginia looked awful on Thursday night.  Credit Tennessee.  They’ll do that to you.  The Volunteers completely disrupted anything UVA tried to do offensively.  They’re a really good team.  But it was still a pretty pitiful performance from the Wahoos.  They shot under 30% from the field, committed 18 turnovers, and were dominated on the glass.  Defense kept them close for a half before the floodgates inevitably gave way. 

The Hoos will be a sizable underdog again in this one.  St. John’s is currently favored by 11.5 points.  While not elite defensively like Tennessee, they’re athletic and present some of the same problems.  The Johnnies will pressure and try to force turnovers so they can get out in transition.  And they like to crash the offensive glass.  Both areas that hurt UVA badly on Thursday.  

More than any stat, Wahoo fans just want to see their team play with poise and compete.  We all understand that there will be early season growing pains, and some of the issues should clear up with time.  But that doesn’t make scoring 42 points acceptable.  Hopefully, the beatdown will result in a team better prepared to compete tonight.   

Up Next

After returning from the Bahamas, Virginia will have two home games next week against Manhattan (2-2) Tuesday followed by Holly Cross (4-2) next Friday.  

Don’t miss the Locker Room Access pregame show, starting 30 minutes before tip as always.  Streamed live on YouTube and Facebook.  

(Featured Image Credit: Jamie Holt/UVA Athletics)