Rick Pitino isn’t of the belief that shot-making will be a problem for St. John’s this year.
In Monday night’s open practice at the Garden, which included a lengthy scrimmage, it didn’t appear to be. RJ Luis, Brady Dunlap, North Texas transfer Aaron Scott and freshmen Jaiden Glover and Lefteris Liotopoulos all showed promise from beyond the arc.
Simeon Wilcher is expected to be one of the Johnnies’ top weapons from downtown as well, although he only took a few jumpers during the scrimmage Monday, as he was handling point guard duties with Utah transfer Deivon Smith out due to a shoulder injury.
One of the narratives with the roster that Pitino put together is that it was short on shooters, since the two top newcomers, Kadary Richmond of Seton Hall and Smith, aren’t known for their outside shooting and the team lost quality shotmakers in Daniss Jenkins, Jordan Dingle and Nahiem Alleyne.
Richmond hit one 3-pointer in the scrimmage.
“I don’t think that’s a weakness. The only weakness is just them meshing with each other, because they all can play,” Pitino said. “It’s not like five guys meshing, it’s 11 guys meshing. [Shooting] is not a weakness. If anything, it’s been a strength so far. RJ has gotten a lot better. We’re going to get Kadary and Deivon shooting the ball much better with our player development, too.”
One of the stars of Monday night’s scrimmage was Glover, the 6-foot-5 freshman wing out of The Patrick School (N.J.). He scored 19 points and hit four 3-pointers.
Glover missed summer workouts due to a wrist injury, but has been coming on of late, to where Pitino expects he will be a contributor this season.
“Jaiden’s very talented, he just doesn’t totally know how to move without basketball. Doesn’t understand the fundamentals great. But in terms of having a great attitude, in terms of having a great body, in terms of having a great game, he’s really good,” Pitino said. “I think he’ll play this year.
“He shoots well, takes contact when he goes to the rim. His weakness, like every high school kid coming into college, is defensively he doesn’t know all the principles of the game.”
Pitino believes two players have emerged as potential leaders to fill the void left by Jenkins: Richmond and junior big man Zuby Ejiofor.
Ejiofor is more of the vocal type, while Richmond has the experience edge since this will be his fifth year of college basketball.
An All-Big East first team selection at Seton Hall last season, Richmond is also the most talented player on the roster.
“The respect level by everybody on the team is enormous with him,” Pitino said.
Pitino felt that last year’s team took time to grow close to one another, and it factored into the Johnnies only surging late in the year.
Jenkins and Dingle, two of St. John’s best players, didn’t develop a bond until late in the season.
“Right now, that’s not the case,” the coach said. “Everybody is tied into each other, and it’s all led by Kadary. Everybody has such high, high respect for Kadary on the team.”
At the moment, Pitino would only commit to three starters: Richmond, Ejiofor and Wilcher.
Smith has missed some time over the last few weeks, with hamstring and shoulder injuries. Pitino expects him to return to practice by the end of the week and play in next Thursday’s exhibition game at Rutgers.
He fully expects the starting lineup to change frequently.
Another standout in the scrimmage was USC transfer Vince Iwuchukwu. He had 16 points and six rebounds, which featured an acrobatic offensive rebound in traffic and powerful two-handed dunk over a pair of defenders.
A former top-30 recruit, the 7-foot-1 Iwuchuckwu was slowed by a cardiac incident he suffered the summer before his freshman year at USC. He also had a back injury that season which in part limited him to 14 games.
But last year, he appeared in 31 games, making 11 starts, and averaged 5.5 points and 3.8 rebounds for the Trojans. Along with Portuguese import Ruben Prey, he is expected to back up Ejiofor.
“He’s a great physical specimen that has to learn the game,” Pitino said. “He had a very traumatic thing happen to him. He’s going to get better and better and better. Great size, great body, great attitude.”
