11-0 Johnnies win by 34-points
QUEENS, NY - This was an easy one.
St. Francis took the short trip from Brooklyn to Carnesecca Arena for a competitive basketball game against St. Johns. The key word would be competitive, but only if you change the definition of the work. You could also change the length of the game, but that is not how this thing works.
The score was close during the first 5 minutes of the game and St. Francis even held a slim lead for a few moments. However, college games are 40 minutes long and once the Red Storm got the lead the competitiveness stopped. St. John’s won going away 86-52. Star guard Shamorie Ponds was on the bench with a shooting shirt on at the 13-minute mark of the second half.
It was a good performance for the Johnnies, one where outsiders start to surmise that it was perhaps their best game of the season.
Why the heck aren’t they ranked?
You hear that noise start to get turned up. This is what the media does. There aren’t many undefeated teams left in the entire nation this season and St. John’s is one of those teams. There must be a good reason why they aren’t getting the ranking that undefeated teams in the Big East should get.
Well, if you keep the volume to the noise turned up, you start to hear that St. John’s hasn’t played anybody. I personally think they have played 11 teams so far, and not one of those teams beat them. They are an 11-0 Big East team that has gotten votes to be ranked, just not enough to count.
They are close though. If you do the math, they would be ranked anywhere from 28th to 31st in the nation if the polls were a little longer. They’re not top 25 in the country, but there are over 300 division one teams that could be ranked. Relatively speaking, they are recognized as a really good team at this point of the year, but I agree that St. John’s shouldn’t be ranked at this point in the season.
I was surprised that I came to that conclusion when I thought about the team’s progress this year. It really is only 11 games played so far, and it’s still the early part of the season. 2019 will bring about the most important ones, league games in the Big East. That’ll be the true test of how good St. John’s is and will be this season.
Right now, St. John’s doesn’t have a player in the rotation bigger than 6-7. That’s small in the world of basketball. Most of the teams in the Big East have big men on the roster, but St. John’s is unique. Their players are comparatively shorter than most teams, but they still jump out the gym. They seemingly are always trying some type of alley-oop every game.
The Red Storm can match up athletically with practically any team in the country. The problem is, if an opposing big man has some type of skill, he will give St. John’s fits if they are forced to slow down the pace. Still, I haven’t seen any team on the level of St. John’s athletically this season. They are pretty good, just not good enough to get ranked.
Fans like rankings, but head coach Chris Mullin couldn’t care any less about rankings. When Marvin Clark said in the post-game press conference that they sort of hear the noise, but it doesn’t bother him, you know where that came from. Mullin said all they can do is take it one game at a time. So far, so good.
Ranked are not, they are still 11-0. They just won a game by 34 points. That’s impressive, no matter how you look at it. It doesn’t matter if your car is blue or green, as long as the engine is running and the brakes work, you’ve got nothing to worry about.
Well, at least until Big East games starts.
