On Friday, manager Rick Pitino urged his players to “let it fly.”
Stop worrying about mistakes. Ignore the percentages.
If you get a 3-point shot, release it.
This came after St. John's attempted a season-low nine 3-pointers and made two of them in a disappointing one-point loss to Creighton on New Year's Eve.
“Honestly, this game defies every metric of the game,” the Hall of Fame coach said Saturday afternoon at Carnesecca Arena as the Johnnys prepared to host Skidding Butler. . “If you can't make 3-point shots easily, it's very difficult to win like we're winning.”
It was a different tone than Pitino, who said after the setback that St. John's (11-3, 2-1) is not a 3-point shooting team.
Probably that won't change.
The Johnnies rank 224th in the nation in 3-point percentage (32.8), 283rd in threes made per game (6.6) and 295th in attempted attempts (20.2).
He has made a total of eight threes in three league games.
Pitino had his team so hesitant against Creighton that St. John's will be fearless in going after them when the opportunity presents itself.
Check out the latest Big East standings and St. Louis. John's statistics
“What bothers me a little bit is when players count their mistakes, count their percentages, and they allow mistakes when they don't make them,” he said. “R.J. [Luis] Be one. RJ is passing a lot of open 3s. He didn't do that last year.
“Aaron [Scott] It doesn't look very good. Simeon [Wilcher] We have to move more to get open threes and until Brady comes out, they're basically our shooters. [Dunlap] I'll be back. ”
As a player, Pitino joked that if he missed four shots in a row, it would only make him want to hit more. In recent days, he has encouraged his players not to overthink things. He even told Wilcher's father, Sergio, to hammer that point into his son, who is a St. John's best 3-point shooter at 40.5 percent, but averages just 2.6 long-range shots per game. I haven't.
“I'm very surprised by this because every team I've coached has liked to take third place,” Pitino said. “They have more confidence in the midrange than the three. But if they don't take them, there won't be any midrange.” We'll get there. ”
Another issue Pitino believes is related to 3-point shooting is pace. At their best, St. John's pushes the ball and gets out in transition. The ball moves. Ranked 96th in the nation in tempo.
But the loss against Creighton and most of the recent win against Providence left them too stagnant.
It's no coincidence that St. John's had its worst offensive performance of the year, averaging just eight assists in the three wins over Georgia, Creighton and Providence.
He also made 7 of 46 3-point shots in those contests.
“Our pace throughout [Creighton] The game was a disaster,” forward Zuby Ejiofor said. “That’s what we’ve been working on in practice. [Thursday]. We just moved the ball a lot faster than we have in the last few games.”
The flip side, of course, is that St. John's is still in a good spot despite recent offensive issues.
They have two wins and one loss in league play and are undefeated in five of their next eight home games.
Ten of the 11 wins were by 13 points or more.
They are an elite rebounding team that ranks ninth in the nation in defensive efficiency and tops the nation in offensive rebounds per game (4.5).
“We’re like a football team that runs the ball a lot, plays great defense and sometimes makes good passes to protect our team. [opponent] To be honest,” Pitino said. “That’s where we are now. The more we play with more pace, the better our 3-point shooting will be.
“Right now, if you play hard and want to win, you'll definitely get there. We have a group of fighters, and I think they'll understand that.”
