PROVIDENCE, R.I. – St. John’s didn’t look all that different in their first game without the suspended D’Angelo Harrison on Saturday night. Playing against a team that has a lot of similarities to them, the Red Storm had some similar results in their 62-59 loss at Providence, a game where they certainly had their chances.
Lavin announced the suspension of Harrison on Friday. That didn’t leave much time before Saturday’s game to adjust, and he said there wasn’t much talk with his team about what this meant as far as adjustments from an offensive standpoint.
“Let’s try and find high percentage shots, both in transition where we attack the rim and try to get out on the break to get some easy looks, and in the halfcourt to share the ball,” said Lavin.
The Red Storm were not a thing of beauty offensively to begin with, especially in Big East play. They shoot over 42 percent from the field, but just over 40 percent in Big East games. Harrison shoots 39 percent overall and below 35 percent in Big East games, so he is part of that. But he still scores nearly 18 points per game, and that has to be made up somehow, or they have to be an even better defensive team than they already are.
In their first time out since the suspension, point production ultimately wasn’t a major issue. Yes, they scored just 59 points, but Providence scored 62. They weren’t blown out, and they had a chance to tie at the end. But they were out-rebounded 47-38, allowing Providence 17 offensive boards along the way. They also let Providence get to the line seven more times than they did and allowed the Friars to make just enough shots from long range. St. John’s shot below 37 percent from the field and was just 1-11 on three-pointers.
“We’ve been awful from the three-point line all year, so that’s not a new headline for us,” said Lavin.
St. John’s actually led by as many as eight in the first half. That lead was down to one at halftime, and Providence took the lead early in the second half.
“I told my kids in the locker room there were a number of positive aspects or dimensions to their performance,” said Lavin. “We had a good week of practice, good preparation, and I liked their effort tonight, there was just one area – rebounding.”
Losing Harrison will force others on this team to be more aggressive and become better scoring threats, because they will need to make up for Harrison’s production. This is a young team, so there is a benefit in the long run as they get better to complement Harrison at a later time.
But right now, this team has designs on making the NCAA Tournament this season, and their chances of that look murky. While they have wins over Cincinnati (road), Notre Dame (home) and Connecticut (home), they also have bad losses like San Francisco, UNC Asheville and Rutgers, the latter two coming at home. They have chances in the final two regular season games, as they head to Notre Dame and then host Marquette. The other saving grace is that the bubble is so weak, there is a lot of room for upward movement.
It’s easy to think that having Harrison might have made the difference between winning and losing on Saturday night, but it’s not that simple. With him, the Red Storm would play differently than they did on Saturday night and opponents will probably scheme a little differently in defending them. In addition, Providence didn’t have all week to plan on defending them without Harrison and probably planned for the Red Storm to have him. Not having him was a curve ball of sorts, unintentional though it was.
The player most likely to grab the mantle of scoring leadership would at first glance seem to be JaKarr Sampson, who is second on the team in scoring and leads all Big East freshmen in that category as well as rebounding. At times on Saturday night he looked like he might be ready to do that. Sampson had 22 points on 9-20 shooting on Saturday and looked more aggressive. SirDominic Pointer had 13 points on 5-10 shooting to go with 10 rebounds and four assists with one turnover. Phil Greene IV is capable but was just 4-16 from the field on Saturday. There are candidates to pick up some of the production of Harrison all over the lineup.
Losing Harrison hurts St. John’s, but there is a long-term benefit. They can also benefit in the short run if players who had been complementary players get more aggressive, and that can make others better. The biggest question is how they will respond to this. They didn’t respond well enough in their first time out without him.
