St. John’s men’s basketball game preview: Fordham

Rick Pitino begins his second season in Queens as the Red Storm tips off against inter-city rival Fordham

232 days. That’s how long St. John’s has agonized over missing out on the NCAA tournament last season despite a 20-win season. The Red Storm were left feeling unfulfilled in the offseason, but the summer created a new opportunity for redemption.

The addition of marquee transfers Kadary Richmond and Deivon Smith to a squad led by Rick Pitino in his second year in charge of the once-prosperous Big East powerhouse has created a different feeling in Queens. Not of cautious optimism with a side of anxiously preparing for when the other shoe drops, but the single-minded belief that this is the year St. John’s, at last, gets over the hump.

This season’s goal is to leave zero doubt of a March Madness berth come Selection Sunday, snap the Red Storm’s quarter-century tournament win drought, and go far in the Big Dance.

The journey to March begins tonight as St. John’s men’s basketball opens their 2024-25 season at home against inter-city rival Fordham.

Game information

Who: St. John’s Red Storm vs. Fordham Rams

When: Monday, November 4, 2024, 6:30 p.m.

Where: Carnesecca Arena, Jamaica, New York

TV: FS1 (whip-around coverage), Fox Sports App (full-game)

Radio: Learfield Radio

Series History: St. John’s leads, 68-22. The Red Storm won last season’s meeting by a score of 77-55.

Injury news

No injuries to report for St. John’s.

What to Watch for in the Storm

Rick Pitino revealed in the preseason that Kadary Richmond, Simeon Wilcher, and Zuby Ejiofor would be day-one starters, and he will adjust the other two remaining spots in the lineup game-by-game.

St. John’s initially looked lost without Kadary Richmond during their October 17 scrimmage against Rutgers. Richmond was a +20, and when he went to the bench after taking his second foul early in the first half, Rutgers went on an extended 22-0 run. There will be stretches when Pitino sits Richmond tonight, so we’ll see how the Red Storm respond without their All-Big East guard on the floor.

Aaron Scott and R.J. Luis were impressive in preseason action, with the pairing being the only players to score in double-figures in each of the Red Storm’s exhibitions. It wouldn’t be a shock for Scott and Luis to get starting nods against a wing-heavy Fordham team.

Deivon Smith suffered a shoulder injury in the offseason and came off the bench in both preseason exhibitions, so Pitino might use Smith as the first guard off the bench as Smith continues to work back to being 100%.

Scouting the Rams

Keith Urgo, who was hired by then-Fordham athletic director Ed Kull, led Fordham to a 25-win season in his first season as the Rams’ head coach in 2022-23, their best mark in thirty years. Last season was not so auspicious, as Fordham returned to a losing record, finishing 13-20 overall and 6-12 in the Atlantic-10 conference.

Nothing fundamentally changed between seasons for the Rams to explain their regression. They were still a very shaky offensive team with a pretty stout defense, even for a mid-major. What did change was their free throw shooting performance, which explains how they lost close games they would have otherwise won in Urgo’s first season. Their shooting percentage at the charity stripe sank from 74.1 percent (90th-best in the country) to 66.2% (339th-best in the country).

The Rams lost Kyle Rose, Antrell Charlton, and Elijah Gray in the offseason, but the team largely remains the same in its identity.

Prognosticators are pessimistic of Fordham this season. The Rams were picked to finish second-to-last in the Atlantic 10 preseason coaches’ poll and they are ranked 166th in KenPom.

Senior guard Japhet Medor is expected to be the starting point guard in his second season in Rose Hill. Averaging 9.8 points and 2.3 assists last year, Medor was pretty inefficient last season, shooting 33.2% from the field and 33.6% from three.

UNLV transfer Jackie Johnson III is a score-first guard who should give an offensive spark to a Fordham team dying for it. Johnson averaged 5.4 points and came off the bench in all 34 games he played last season, but he scored in double-figures in nine different games while playing 20 minutes or less in all but one of those performances. This October, Johnson scored a game-high 23 points and collected eight rebounds in the Rams’ 86-72 exhibition win over UMBC.

Abdou Tsimbila is an elite shot blocker for the Rams, earning a spot on the preseason Atlantic-10 All-Defensive team. The 6-foot-8 graduate forward averaged 7.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks last season. Among players to play in 40 percent or more of his team’s minutes, Tsimbila was tied for seventh in block percentage nationally with UConn’s Donovan Clingan (11.4%).

Tsimbila also became much more efficient, improving his field goal percentage from 44 percent in his junior year to 55.6 percent last season.

Will Richardson is tabbed as a potential breakout candidate in the Atlantic-10 conference. The former four-star recruit from Teaneck, New Jersey averaged 9.8 points and 1.9 assists last season while shooting 33% from the field and 29% from three, but he did end his sophomore season with a strong performance, scoring a season-high 20 points and hitting three triples in a win over Davidson in the Atlantic 10 tournament.

Joining Richardson is his high school teammate and Notre Dame transfer Matt Zona, who will play his graduate year for the Rams after playing as a reserve big for the Fighting Irish over the last four years. Even on a depleted Notre Dame squad in Micah Shrewsberry’s first season in charge, Zona struggled to find minutes, playing just 11.2 minutes per night while averaging 2.3 points and 2.3 rebounds. A potential step down to the Atlantic 10 could kindle something for the Blauvelt, New York native.

Key contributor Josh Rivera is also back for his junior season after he averaged 7.5 points and 3.4 rebounds last season.

Keys to the game

Kook’s Corner – Kadary Richmond makes his St. John’s debut tonight, and he matches up well against a Fordham squad that is lacking in size. The Brooklyn native should run roughshod and attack the basket at will.

The Big Fellas – Speaking of Fordham’s lack of interior size, Zuby Ejiofor and Vince Iwuchukwu should have a field day in the post. Joel Soriano tallied a 20-point, ten-rebound, and three-block performance against the Rams last year, and a repeat is in the cards for the frontcourt tandem.

Fire Away – If there’s any path for the Rams to pull an opening night upset, they will have to win a low-scoring, plodding kind of game. St. John’s needs to play to their tempo and build early separation against Fordham, and they could accomplish that by knocking down their long-range jumpers and converting on the fastbreak.

Prediction

Fordham is a pretty decent opponent for an opening night buy-game at home. Yes, the Rams are overmatched in talent, size, and ability, but they’re defensively capable enough to reveal some things in St. John’s that teams like Mercer or Mississippi Valley State couldn’t.

This should be a comfortable win for the Red Storm, but there will be parts of their performance that Rick Pitino will call out in his post-game press conference. Zuby Ejiofor has a 20-point, 10-rebound double-double night, Aaron Scott terrorizes the Fordham offense on multiple occasions, and Kadary Richmond creates a few memorable plays tonight that land on social media. St. John’s wins 82-59.