Seeking better D, St. John's faces cold-shooting West Virginia

Field Level Media|published: Thu 30th November, 18:30 2023

Nov 25, 2023; Queens, New York, USA; St. John's Red Storm head coach Rick Pitino yells out instructions in the first half against the Holy Cross Crusaders at Carnesecca Arena. credits: Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

A few extra days in between games is giving St. John's coach Rick Pitino plenty of practice time and opportunities to work on improving his new team's defense.

With five days since their last game, the Red Storm are curious to see if the extra practice time can result in defensive improvement Friday night when they head to Morgantown, W. Va., to face West Virginia in a Big East-Big 12 matchup.

The Red Storm (4-2) are seeking their third straight win and facing their third power-conference opponent. St. John's is allowing 71.7 points per game, a number aided by the 45 it allowed Saturday in a 46-point home win over Holy Cross.

The Red Storm allowed at least 80 points three times so far, doing so in an 89-73 loss to Michigan, an 88-81 loss to Dayton and a 91-82 win over Utah. Against Michigan on Nov. 13, they allowed 11 of 26 on 3-pointers to go along with 51.6 percent overall shooting.

As a result, St. John's is allowing opponents to a league-worst 37.2 percent from deep.

"For us, to get ready for the Big East, we are going to need to improve defensively and value the basketball better, and they know that," Pitino said Wednesday. "One good thing about this team is they are very intelligent. You can show them the metrics on paper and they get it right away."

St. John's is hoping its defense can improve in conjunction with another effective showing on offense. It scored 80 points for the fourth time against Holy Cross in a game when Joel Soriano scored 16 points and R.J. Luis Jr. added 14 in his season debut.

West Virginia (3-3) has yet to surpass 70 points and is last in the Big 12 in scoring (62.7 points) and field-goal percentage (38.1 percent), and 13th in 3-point percentage (29.6 percent).

The Mountaineers are coming off a 62-58 win over Bellarmine on Sunday after losses to SMU and Virginia. They shot 41.2 percent while also missing 13 of 16 3-point tries.

Quinn Slazinski, who played for Pitino at Iona, leads the Mountaineers with 16.3 points and scored 16 points against Bellarmine. Jesse Edwards collected 17 and 14 boards for his third double-double.

"At the end of the day, it's a win, but we have to figure out how we learn from it and grow," West Virginia interim head coach Josh Eilert said.

—Field Level Media

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