Men's Week in Review: Johnnies drop two straight as their season takes a turn for the worse

As the month of January comes to a close, it looks like the St. John's Red Storm have officially hit their lowest point of the season.

After a tough loss to Duke on Sunday afternoon in which they fought hard, yet blew a double-digit second half lead for the second time in three games, the Red Storm embarrassed themselves last night when they fell on the road against the Creighton Blue Jays, who had previously been without a Big East win this season.

Although putting up big numbers seems to be useless when your team isn't winning games, Sir`Dominic Pointer has to get the nod for the St. John's MVP for this week after he put up back-to-back stellar performances.

Pointer averaged 17 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, three steals, and three blocks per game over his last two outings, and he has either led the team or been tied for the team in every one of those five statistical categories in two of the Red Storm's last three games.

However, aside from Pointer's phenomenal play, there really has not been a whole lot to be proud of from this team's play over the past week, contrary to what Steve Lavin tried to tell the media last night. D`Angelo Harrison's shooting struggles continue, and although he scored a team-high 18 points last night, the senior has shot just 9-29 from the field over his last two games, and is now just 14-57 (25%) over his last four games.

Harrison remains adamant in saying that he feels fine, and he did certainly look better last night than he did in his previous three games, but something still seems off with his shot, and at this point in the season with such a short bench, the Red Storm simply cannot afford to have him sit out a few games (not that he would want to either).

And finally, some injury news for St. John's as Rysheed Jordan's status for Saturday's game is in question after he left last night's game with a strained patella tendon in his knee.

The injury really could not come at worse time for both the Red Storm and for Jordan himself, who really had been playing some good basketball over the past few weeks and was coming off one of the best games in his career, an 18-point performance against Duke.

If Jordan cannot go on Saturday or for any extended period of time, it would just add salt to the wound for a St. John's team that has struggled with depth all season. Lavin has really only been utilizing a six-man rotation this season, and in the one other game that Jordan missed this year against Butler on January 4th, he did not look towards any of his guards off the bench, except for giving Myles Stewart a few seconds of garbage time.

The pair of losses this week, mainly last night's loss to Creighton, have many St. John's fans asking questions that simply cannot be answered. Why play zone against a team that'd only consistent offensive option was the 3-pointer? Why did the team have no timeouts left in closing seconds of the game to draw up a play? The list could go on and on.

But as the Red Storm sit at 13-7 overall, 2-5 in the Big East, and losers of six of their last eight, there is still one month left to play in the season, and one month left for this team's seniors to make their mark on this program.

The Week Ahead

While many considered last night a proverbial dagger to the heart of the Johnnies tournament hopes, there are still 11 Big East games left to play plus the Big East Tournament, and they will likely need at least eight wins in those 11 games.

Although you'd be hard-pressed to find any St. John's fans who think that's possible at this moment, the journey will begin this Saturday at 12 P.M. when the Red Storm takes on Providence at MSG, and will continue on Tuesday night when they travel to Hinkle Fieldhouse to play Butler.

Tweet of the Week

That was about as positive a press conference as you could expect after a loss like that. #sjubb

— Zach Braziller (@NYPost_Brazille) January 29, 2015