Duke Basketball: St. John’s riding local star to return to the national stage
With one victory over the Duke Basketball team in his career, St. John’s is trusting Shamorie Ponds to bring the Red Storm program back to the national stage.
Ahead of Duke’s matchup with the St. John’s Red Storm on Saturday afternoon, the team at Ball Durham got a chance to catch up with Brendan Myers, the sports editor of the St. John’s University student newspaper, The Torch, for his thoughts on the game and the overall state of the Red Storm’s basketball program.
Q: Shamorie Ponds came back to St. John’s after going through the NBA Draft process last year without an agent. What area of his game has improved the most this season?
A: Shamorie Ponds has consistently said that he came back to St. John’s because NBA scouts told him that they wanted to see a winner. He’s stepped into the role of facilitator for the Red Storm this season. His assist numbers are up from 4.7 assists to 5.7 assists. At times, however, it’s fair to say that he’s been a little too passive. St. John’s got the performance they needed from their star on Wednesday night in Omaha, when he dropped 26 points to give St. John’s their first ever win at Creighton, a win that very well could have saved a season that was heading astray. He’s clearly been stressing his playmaking ability in 2018-19, but St. John’s is at their best when he’s got the two sides balanced, and not focusing too heavily on one facet. As a scorer, he’s shooting the deep ball at the best rate of his career. At 38%, it’s fair to still want more, but it’s an improvement nonetheless from last year’s percentage at 25%.
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Q: The biggest offseason addition for St. John’s was getting Auburn transfer Mustapha Heron. How has he adjusted to playing in New York and has he lived up to expectations?
A: It’s hard to truly judge Mustapha Heron. You can see the quality without a doubt, but because of injuries and foul trouble, Heron’s had to play out of position for the Johnnies. It seems like he’s expending so much energy on the defensive end that it’s thrown his offensive rhythm off. I really like St. John’s’ offense when they make it a priority to get the ball down on the block to Heron and let him play bully ball. He’s starting to find his rhythm. In last year’s meeting, Bashir Ahmed scored 19 points which were key to the victory, look for Heron to have a similar role if St. John’s can steal one at Cameron Indoor.
Q: St. John’s was on an 11 game losing streak last season and then stunned Duke at MSG. The Red Storm have been stumbling of late, but can this team pull off another major upset against Duke and if so, how can St. John’s do it?
A: Well, the aforementioned victory against Creighton was a huge momentum swing in St. John’s’ favor for Saturday. St. John’s needs to speed up Duke and turn this game into a track meet. Since Duke has a floor general like Tre Jones, that’s a lot easier said than done. But if St. John’s forces Duke into turnovers and and secures long rebounds to spark fast breaks, they can give the Blue Devils a run for their money. I think St. John’s was in a worse position last year when they shocked Duke, so it’d be foolish to completely count the Red Storm out. With the way Zion Williamson and R.J. Barrett attack the basket and get to the line, St. John’s needs to stay disciplined down low and stay out of foul trouble.
Q: Since being ranked in the Top-25 about two weeks ago, St. John’s has only won two games. What has been the biggest issue for the Red Storm during that time?
A: Ball movement. For a team with capable passers all over the floor, the ball goes stagnant way too often. Chris Mullin runs an NBA system, featuring a lot of isolation, and it hurts the Johnnies at time. They force bad shots either early in the shot clock or heave up a desperation shot as the shot clock is expiring. St. John’s suffers from scoring droughts all too often and it’s usually caused by a lack of ball movement. Their also undersized, and Big East coaches have been able to take advantage of it. With Sedee Keita still getting his legs and conditioning back after early season knee-surgery, any time Marvin Clark II (their tallest player aside from Keita) gets in foul trouble, the Johnnies struggle down low.
Q: Things don’t seem to be getting better or easier for St. John’s. What must the Red Storm do to getting its season back on track with just over a month away from the Big East Tournament and about seven weeks away from Selection Sunday?
A: Everyone saw what this team is capable of when St. John’s throttled Marquette on New Year’s Day at Carnesecca Arena. Everyone’s also seen the low points of this team such as games like a home loss to DePaul (albeit without Shamorie Ponds) and the first 35 minutes of the loss at Butler. If St. John’s , and I think they can, gets their season back on track, it’s going to be because they start putting together complete 40 minute games. Against a team like Duke, a two-minute scoring drought is a killer with athletes like Zion and R.J. who can you hit you with ten points before you even know what happened.
Q: Everyone knows of Chris Mullin as the star player at St. John’s and the NBA Hall of Famer, but Mullin is now in year four as the Head Coach of St. John’s. In your judgement, how has he performed as a first time head coach on any level and what can he improve on going forward?
A: When talking about this, it’s hard not too point at the Georgetown game. He ran out of timeouts early in the second half, and the Fox Sports broadcast caught him tying his shoes during a timeout. Many have been critical of Mullin’s in-game management, and last Sunday didn’t change the mind of any doubters. He’s certainly been more engaged this season than previous seasons, but questions still remain about the team’s in-game execution. This was always going to be Mullin’s make-or-break year after three years of thin rosters. It started strong, faded in the middle, and we’ll see how the Johnnies season ends as the regular season heads to a close.
We thank Brendan Meyers for his time and remind you that the Duke Blue Devils and St. John’s Red Storm will tipoff on Saturday afternoon at 12:00 pm ET from Cameron Indoor Stadium and the game can be seen on ESPN.
Stay tuned to Ball Durham on Twitter, @Ball_Durham, and here at our website, balldurham.com, for complete coverage of the Duke Blue Devils vs. the St. John’s Red Storm.