Game #20: St. John's 72 at South Florida Bulls 58

I was traveling and apparently, never posted the game preview on St. John's I'd meant to. That's what happens when you type at 3 in the morning after traveling for around 10 hours total. I'll post it later for posterity.

St. John's is now 8-12, 2-7 in conference.

Saturday night I was in New York and watched the Red Storm play South Florida in the home bar. Luckily, most of my friends had left for their other evening engagements, and that allowed me to be "that guy" in the bar, thumping his own chest as the Red Storm made their run. Oh, I was a little too happy. Maybe it was the beer. But it was a surprisingly thrilling game. The thrill might be because South Florida certainly has less talent than St. John’s. And they have less tradition. Hell, they don’t even have an independent fan blog. What’s up with that???

The thrill comes in two parts. I’m excited about the win, but against a weak South Florida team, I would have more confidence for this team turning around its fortunes if they weren’t trailing 18-5 after 7:00 minutes, or 24-9 after 12:00. The Bulls stopped scoring after that for the half. Not a point. Some credit has to go to the defense there, but I don’t think most good teams go 8:00 without a field goal. Also, this was Larry Wright’s game. He went off and was 7-7 from the field and 3-3 from beyond the arc. He even had 4 rebounds. Then he missed his one shot of the night.

Malik Boothe was also the spectacular, with 11 points and 10 assists. Many of them coming on action in transition. Kennedy got in the lane and has some easy dunks. Burrell had his career high in points of 22.

Anthony Mason Jr. bruised his shin but was on the bench in the second half. The centers—Jasiulionis, Coker, and Evans—combined for2 points (Sean Evans), 2 rebounds (Evans), 2 assists (Evans, Coker), 0 blocks, 1 steal (Evans), 0 turnovers, and 7 fouls (Evans, Jasiulionis) in 28 minutes.