St. John’s men’s basketball exhibition preview: Rutgers

The Red Storm take on the Scarlet Knights in their first dress rehearsal of the season on Thursday (6:30 p.m., Big Ten Network)

It’s been 215 days since we last saw the St. John’s men’s basketball team play on the hardwood. Sadly, we will have to wait 19 more days to see them take the floor for a game that counts, but we will get the next best thing with an appetizing exhibition duel against No. 25 Rutgers on Thursday night.

This is the second straight year St. John’s takes on Rutgers in a preseason exhibition. Last year, they defeated the Scarlet Knights in a 89-78 double overtime thriller. Nahiem Alleyne scored a game-high 19 points, including a buzzer-beating triple to send the game into a second overtime period.

Game information

Who: St. John’s Red Storm vs. No. 25 Rutgers Scarlet Knights

When: Thursday, October 17, 2024, 6:30 p.m.

Where: Jersey Mike’s Arena (a.k.a. Rutgers Athletic Center), Piscataway, New Jersey

TV: Big Ten Network

Radio: N/A

Tickets: Evenue.net (all proceeds benefit the Jimmy V Foundation)

Series History: St. John’s leads, 28-14

Injury news

No injuries to report for St. John’s. Rick Pitino said R.J. Luis and Aaron Scott suffered concussions during practice last week, but they and the rest of the team will be available for Thursday night’s game.

What to watch for in the Storm

Rick Pitino revealed three of his five starters for tomorrow’s game against Rutgers: Kadary Richmond, Simeon Wilcher, and Zuby Ejiofor.

Wilcher and Ejiofor combined for only three starts last season, but Pitino clearly has confidence in the former top 50 recruits taking more responsibility by naming their starters before the season began.

How Pitino fills out the remainder of the lineup will be interesting. Does he add more length with R.J. Luis and Aaron Scott? Could Brady Dunlap get the starting nod to give the lineup more perimeter shooting? Will he play a smaller lineup by starting Deivon Smith and forming a three-guard backcourt with Richmond and Wilcher?

Pitino mentioned that the entire team will be available to play, but he didn’t reveal whether he will use every player and how much he will use his bench unit.

Kadary Richmond will also face Rutgers for the final time and is looking to break through against a tough Scarlet Knights defense. Richmond has a career record of 2-2 against the Scarlet Knights, averaging 10.8 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 3.5 assists on 39.5% shooting and 16.7% from three in such games across stints with Syracuse and Seton Hall.

Scouting the Scarlet Knights

Like the Red Storm, Rutgers enters the 2024-25 season with plenty of excitement after missing the NCAA tournament a season ago. Top ten high school recruits Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper are a big reason why the Scarlet Knights are ranked in the AP preseason poll, and the star pairing will get their first taste of college basketball on Thursday night.

Unlike the Red Storm, the Scarlet Knights never seemed to catch their groove last season. Rutgers finished with a 15-17 record, their first losing mark in five seasons, and 100th or worse in KenPom for the first time since Steve Pikiell’s second season in charge.

Last season’s efficiency numbers looked like a parody of Rutgers’ brand of basketball under Pikiell. They boasted the 5th-best defense in KenPom but were also an eye-wateringly bad 298th in offensive efficiency. Their 43.5% effective field goal percentage was sixth worst in the country and only two ticks better than Lindenwood, who played in their second season of Division-I basketball.

So much has changed in terms of personnel. Defensive anchor Cliff Omoruyi entered the portal and once flirted with coming to St. John’s before committing to Alabama. Former captain Aundre Hyatt graduated after three years with the team. Fan-favorite glue guy Mawot Mag headed across the country to BYU. Bespeckled sharpshooter Gavin Griffiths, their highest-ranked recruit in program history until this season, departed for conference foe Nebraska. Starting guard Derek Simpson drove down I-95 to Saint Joseph’s.

How far Rutgers goes this season will depend on the performance of the star-studded freshman duo of Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper. Standing at 6-foot-10, Bailey is a matchup nightmare who will provide unguardable athleticism and length. Dylan Harper, the son of NBA legend Ron and brother of former Scarlet Knights standout Ron Jr., will serve as Rutgers’ floor general for the season.

The two highest-scoring returnees are senior Jeremiah Williams and sophomore Jamichael Davis. Williams was suspended for the first 20 games of last season after violating the NCAA’s gambling policy, then led the Scarlet Knights in scoring in the final 12 games of the season (12.2 ppg). Davis began off the bench last season and became a regular starter at the start of February, averaging 5.6 points per game. Neither guard was an efficient shooter last season.

Three-point shooting was a scarlet letter for the Knights last season. Former Princeton forward Zach Martini (8.4 ppg) will stay in the Garden State to try and alleviate that. Martini shot 38.5% from deep and was 93rd in the country in KenPom offensive rating (123.7) last year. Princeton ran one of the smoothest offenses in the country, so it will be interesting to see if Martini can maintain his production going into one of the clunkiest offenses in the country.

Graduate transfer P.J. Hayes is another deep-range threat coming to Piscataway. Hayes began his career at Division-II Black Hills State, then spent one season at San Diego where he averaged 10.5 points per game and shot 39.7% from three.

Eastern Michigan guard Tyson Acuff joins the squad after leading the MAC in scoring last season with 21.7 points per game. Acuff suffered a fractured right foot during team workouts in June and was only recently cleared for action, so he will probably not play in Thursday’s scrimmage.

Remember Jordan Derkack? That scrappy guy from little ol’ Merrimack who scored 15 points in his college debut against St. John’s in that extremely annoying game where the Red Storm gave up 29 turnovers? He’s now on Rutgers after winning the 2023-24 NEC Player of the Year and leading the conference in scoring with 17.0 points per game.

After losing Omoruyi, the most daunting question for the Scarlet Knights comes in the frontcourt. The only returning big man is Emmanuel Ogbole, who averaged 2.1 points in limited minutes last season. Four-star freshman Lathan Sommerville could be the center of the future for the Scarlet Knights, but he will probably need time to get acclimated to the college basketball grind.

Prediction

Considering how many times I was wrong last year, I wondered whether I should get rid of game predictions for this season. It’s a fool’s errand to make predictions for a charity exhibition in mid-October, but why not?

This will be an ugly slugfest typical for games at the Rutgers Athletic Center, made even worse by both teams attempting to brush away offseason rust. Facing an inexperienced frontcourt, Zuby Ejiofor will command the floor and throw more fuel into his offseason hype machine. Free throw shooting will be the difference in this game, as St. John’s makes their jumpers at a dependable clip while Rutgers flounders. St. John’s wins by a score of 61-56.