Tonight, St. John's plays their final tune-up before the regular season starts against St. Mary's of Maryland. Lat week saw an exhibition of youth, speed, athleticism, agility... but the defense left a bit to be desired. Practice this week has focused on improving the St. John's defense - allowing fewer points in some way or another from the young squad.
We'll see exactly what that means; for St. John's, better defense may not actually mean that the other team makes a lower percentage of their shots (though that would be nice). It might mean more turnovers, more short bursts of chaos that lead to scores the other way, and funneling the scoring opportunities to certain areas - like away from the basket but inside the three-point line, for example.
St. John's also hopes to see improved efforts from Sir`Dominic Pointer and D`Angelo Harrison - not that they were terrible, but they can be better. And Malik Stith and Phil Greene need to keep up their solid efforts from last week.
St. Mary's comes with a tall squad that knows success on the Division III level. Their coach, Chris Haney, has recruited well at his level. The St. Mary's Seahawks might give the Johnnies a run tonight, and their height will be a helpful challenge for the short, guard-oriented Johnnies, whose sole height is God`sgift Achiuwa and Moe Harkless.
"Coach Dunlap has been emphasizing defense all week. I've been working extremely hard on my defense so the defense will be improved tomorrow." - Nurideen Lindsey, pregame
Look for the postgame recap this evening from Quinn, and some more angles around the game in the coming days (along with some season preview posts).
But for now, let's open the season's second game thread! Comment away!