A Week Preview for St John's Basketball

PHOTO/ Sara Kiernan

The St John's Redstrom has a loaded week with 2 games starting with Central Connecticut State on Tuesday night at 7 pm and Nebraska on Thursday at 6 pm.

The men are ready to keep fighting for their 2 game streak to live even longer. In the home opener game, there were 29 turnovers. It was a tough way for the first game to go even with a 20-point difference win with the final score being 97-72. Through those 29 turnovers, Head Coach Mike Anderson spoke during the post-game conference addressing the issues that appeared throughout the game.

"We got a lead and we got sloppy with the basketball. That will be addressed. That's not something I condone. We work hard to get the basketball and not give it away."

Even with that many turnovers, the men were ready to keep fighting. In the second matchup of the official season, there were only 10 turnovers. The team seemed to still have some nerves during the first half of the game but turned it around for a very impressive second half. Senior center, Joel Soriano only had one point during the first half and spoke on what changed his mindset going into the second half.

"I think it was my body language and my energy. I was very frustrated during the first half, I wasn't getting any looks. I talked to the coaches and they told me to be more aggressive and to change my body language and I just came into the second half with a different mindset."

PHOTO/ Sara Kiernan

Soriano was not the only player to have a couple of big games. David Jones was put on the Big East Weekly Honor roll for the first official week of the season. It is a good omen to have a player on this list for the first week of the official season as it shows the strength of the team. Jones had a big hand in keeping the score up with 21 points against Merrimack and 20 points against Lafayette.

The Johnnies have been putting up numbers during the first games of the season that could put them in a very sweet spot for the next couple of weeks. This is the team that Anderson has been calling his best one, so they have pressure to deliver to not only him but the fans. During the post-game media conference, Anderson spoke on how it is not just a few guys who are making the team but all of them.

"Our bench continues to spark, Omar, our guys coming in and you never know whose time it's going to be when they come off that bench."

With Central Connecticut State on a two-game losing streak, this should be an easy win for the Johnnies. On the other hand, Nebraska is on a two-game win streak just like the Johnnies. Playing Nebraska is part of the Big 10 Big East partnership called the Gavitt Tipoff Games. This partnership started in 2015 and will end this year as part of the 8-year-long program. Both of these games will be played on the RedStorm home court of Carnesecca Arena. After this week and these two matchups, we will be able to see how the rest of the season may go for the RedStorm.