Cadary Richmond and Davon Smith were big additions in the transfer portal.
RJ Lewis and Simeon Wilcher were the main returning players, with the former finally getting healthy and the latter being praised for his improvement after a quiet freshman season.
But St. John's best player Thursday night was Zuby Ejiofor. No wonder Rick Pitino named him the starter a few weeks ago.
The 6-foot-9 forward, who was Joel Soriano's backup last season, won a 91-85 exhibition game against Rutgers and star freshmen Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper at Jersey Mike's Arena. Worked as a one-man interior wrecking crew.
“When we first got him they said he was 12 feet. [jump shot] player and what he can do is a little limited. I think you see what he can do,” Pitino said after Ejiofor had 27 points, 13 rebounds and a 3-point shot in the come-from-behind victory. “I was trying to get him to jump out more and get open threes. He made one and said he wanted to keep increasing his percentage.”
After a shaky first half that saw Rutgers cruise to a 22-0 win, there were plenty of positives for the Johnnys.
Wilcher had a good performance with 15 points and 6 rebounds. Richmond (nine points, nine rebounds, six assists) and Smith were especially active late in the game when the Johnnies finished the game on a 14-2 run.
Lewis' jumper seemed to improve, as he finished with 22 points, six rebounds, and three assists. Bailey and Harper combined for 45 points for Rutgers, but they were slowed down by the Johnnies in the closing stages.
I was told to buy Ejiofor.
He was dominant on both ends of the floor and looked like a player ready to take a big leap forward.
Beyond Rutgers. Noah K. Murray/New York Post
“I love Zubby, that's my daughter. He's been my roommate since last year. I'm so happy to be on the floor with him this year more than last year,” Lewis said. “I feel like Zuby played a big role. He's a captain, he's a leader. I'm really excited for him.”
St. John's had the edge in a number of key stats, from rebounds (plus-9) to transition points (plus-9) and points in the paint (plus-16) to second-chance points (plus-4).
They were on the back foot for most of the game, leading by as many as 13 points early in the second half.
Pitino went just seven deep after halftime. He treated it like a real match in the last few minutes.
“This was a great win for us,” Pitino said. “I wanted to see the character of our basketball team, and I saw that tonight. I'm really proud of that. … Last year we weren't ready at the beginning of the year, so we got everybody involved. I wanted to [during] The first half was good, but in the second half we will play to win. ”
There were areas that Pitino felt needed improvement.
There were nine turnovers in the first half.
St. John's needs to develop backup big men Vince Iwuchukwu and Ruby Play so that Ejiofor doesn't need to be on the court all the time. Smith and Richmond are still getting used to each other.
But in the first game of this new group, they handled adversity well and showed some of the reasons why Pitino believes his team has a high ceiling.
“Like Coach P said, wins like this say a lot about us as a team and our character. We really dug deep tonight,” Ejiofor said. “We made some changes in the second half that ultimately gave us the win. We never gave up. It was one thing at a time, one little bit at a time.”
