St. John' vs Penn State at Barclays - open game thread

The "easier" part of St. John's schedule resulted in a lot of close wins, a number of long jump shots, and a case of agita from the Red Storm faithful.

Will the Johnnies be up for these games against a set of opponents who all want to make the same statement St. John's wants to make - that they're here, that they can get out of the middling class, that they're coming to take one of the 68 spots in the coveted NCAA Tournament at the end of the regular season?

St. John's needs to find the Penn State shooters - and use their size to bottle the PSU guards and wings. But head coach Pat Chambers of Penn State doesn't plan to stick exlusively to the perimeter. "We still gotta go in the paint," Chambers said on Wednesday. "We're not going to live and die by our jump shot. When we have the opportunity to go strong, we'll go strong."

Tendencies and stat preview on our earlier St. John's/ Penn State preview post. And we leave you with this bit of impoliteness from Penn State beat writer David Jones:

The Johnnies are an ugly, largely brainless outfit with an abundance of two positive qualities – they are pretty big and they can really jump. That distills to formidable board work and shot-blocking. Lavin basically rolls the ball out and shouts encouragement.And a look at St. John's and Penn State vs mutual opponents.

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