St. John’s will
head into their game Thursday against North Texas facing an early test. They
will try and bounce back from an 89-73 loss to Michigan in a game that was
supposed to be a grand Garden opening for Rick Pitino and the Johnnies but
turned out to be considerably less than that.
Michigan’s backcourt of Nimari Burnett and Dug
McDaniel combined for 47 points while posting career highs of 21 and 26 points
respectively. They may provide an example of what can be effective team
building in this new age of college hoops. Burnett, is a long athletic wing who
transferred to Ann Arbor from Alabama. McDaniel, on the other hand is a
sophomore at Michigan a rare (these days) returning player who’s well known to recruiting
gurus in these parts for his good work at Pope Paul VI High School in Washington
DC.
Burnett torched the
Johnnies from the start scoring 15 of his team’s first 16 points and finishing
the 1st half with all of his 21 points. After Chris Ledlum’s free
throw gave St. John’s a 31-29 advantage Burnett’s third 3-ball of the opening
half gave the Wolverines the lead for good. Michigan closed the half with an 11-3
spurt and lead 48-38 at the intermission.
Pitino
was succinct and to the point (play on words intended) when he described
McDaniel’s performance by saying simply “he dominated us” That choice of words
may have been a reaction more to what he saw on the court than what he read on
the stat sheet. McDaniel set an early tone of physicality for his team and ran
their offense perfectly. And in the second half while Burnett was quiet he took
on a share of the scoring load, adding 16 of his 26 in the latter 20 minutes.
Pitino admitted
that St. John’s played terribly at both ends of the floor but said that the dysfunctional
offense surprised him the most. “They went one-on-one way too much,” Pitino
said of his team. “That was surprising because we hadn’t seen that from our guys.”
Hopefully
the quick turnaround and a trip to Charleston will provide the fresh look at things
the team now seems to need. This early season adversity is an important test St.
John’s must pass.
Congratulations to Joel Soriano Joel scored the 1000th
point of his career in the 1st half of tonight’s game. The senior
from Stepinac HS scored a team high 15 points and had 6 rebounds for the
Johnnies.
