BY ALEJANDRO LOPEZ
NEW YORK – –St. John’s has played just two preseason games thus far this season and head coach Rick Pitino is already confident he has identified his team’s biggest “weakness.”
His guards don’t rebound the way he wants them to.
“It’s just difficult, but I set the schedule because I wanted to know, right now I know that our guards don’t rebound,” Pitino said after No. 5 St. John’s lost to No. 7 Michigan, 96-94 in overtime, at Madison Square Garden Saturday night. “I wanted to find out, and I found out tonight what our weaknesses are and it’s a great teaching tool.”
The Red Storm’s guards struggled in a number of areas in front of an electric crowd at tte World’s Most Famous Arena. Oziyah Sellers fouled out of the game after just 8 minutes on the floor, while Ian Jackson played 21 minutes but struggled with just 2 points on the night.
“Oziyah has been fouling a lot in practice and we as coaches have done a very poor job calling fouls,” Pitino said. “We’ve been letting him put hands on people, so that was a great learning experience for him as well.”
As for Jackson, Pitino is confident his offensive game will come around for the program.
“He was out three days with a sprained ankle,” he said. ” I’m not concerned, he’s going to play better than tonight.”
BIG EAST Preseason Player of the Year Zuby Ejiofor led the way for the Red Storm, tallying 24 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals. The senior went 6-for-12 from the field and sank 12 of his 13 tries from the charity stripe.
Ejiofor paced five Johnnies in double figures. Joson Sanon scored 14 points in just 15 minutes of action due to foul trouble. Bryce Hopkins and Dillon Mitchell each finished with 13 points while adding 9 and 8 rebounds, respectively. Lefty Liotopoulos also ended the evening with 13 points on 3-of-6 shooting, including a 2-for-4 effort from beyond the arc.
Preseason All-Big Ten pick Yaxel Lendeborg scored 25 points on 10-of-15 shooting to lead the Wolverines. The New Jersey native also grabbed 10 rebounds and dished out four assists.
In a game that came down to a couple of missed free throws late in overtime, Pitino’s main concern lies with his guards’ defense and rebounding, not offense.
“I’ve been very blessed in my coaching career to have guards that rebound, and I’ve got a group here that doesn’t rebound the ball, we’ve got to do something about that.” Pitino said.
Still, St. John’s will enter the season as one of the highest rated teams in all of college basketball – and with legitimate Final Four aspirations. What remains to be seen now is if Pitino and his squad can mitigate the weaknesses he spotted in these exhibitions in time for the start of the regular season.
FOUR-STAR GUARD ATTENDS GAME
Four-star guard Adam Oumiddoch of Overtime Elite attended the game while on his visit to St. John’s.
He has also visited Oregon, Villanova, LSU and Illinois.
Four-star @OvertimeElite G @Adamshiftygoat attended the Michigan-St. John’s game on his @StJohnsBBall visit https://t.co/Nwtdlavmv0
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) October 26, 2025
The four-star guard believes that over time, it will be obvious which school wants him to be a part of their program the most.
“In my opinion, it’s either you like me or you don’t,” Oumiddoch told ZAGSBLOG in May. “And I’m only going to one school, so a coach can show me love and whatever coach is showing me the most love, hopefully we can build that bond and go over there.”
Oumiddoch is the No. 48-ranked prospect in the 2026 class, according to 247Sports. His favorite NBA player is Derrick Rose and his favorite hobby outside of basketball is hanging out with his mother.
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