St. John’s entertains West Virginia at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday. A pre-game look at a few pertinent tempo-free numbers, Big East Conference games are the only ones included:

West Virginia (5-2)

Pace – 68 possessions

Offensive efficiency 107

Defensive efficiency 97

Efficiency margin +10

St. John’s (2-6)

Pace- 68 possessions

Offensive efficiency 94

Defensive efficiency 1 05

Efficiency margin -11

Little surprise West Virginia has a healthy efficiency margin (offense minus defense) while the Red Storm struggle in the ‘red’. Interesting both clubs play at a brisk pace. Not all out nor walking it up the floor but transition on opportunities.

The key of the Four Factors: West Virginia is showing an 18% turnover rate. Impressive. Bob Huggins’ club does not turn it over.

St. John’s forces opponents into a 22% TO rate. The Red Storm need to rebound better however. The offensive rebounding percentage is 32% for St. John’s and 42% for opponents. A minus ten differential.

A look back at Villanova. The Card Chronicle has been posting ‘Kenpom Wannabe Stats’. This is similar to the Manley Efficiency without the subtracting of missed shots. Simply, add points, rebounds, assists , blocks and steals, subtract turnovers and divide by minutes played to determine your game efficiency. Wanted to include players logging ten or more minutes in that overtime contest the past Saturday. Included everyone as St. John’s used seven in the rotation with Malik Stith playing the least at nine minutes.

Mo Harkless and D’Angelo Harrison both posted 26 efficiency points. Harkless went the full 45 minutes while Harrison played 31 minutes. Overall, Harkless had the better balanced game with 16 points, 7 rebounds and 5 blocks.