When St. John’s and Villanova matched up earlier this season, the Red Storm were starting to establish themselves as a true national championship contender.
Fast-forward exactly one month later and No. 9 St. John’s has climbed into the Associated Press Top 10 for the first time since March 2000 as head coach Rick Pitino’s team prepares for Wednesday’s road matchup with the Wildcats.
“(Our team is) having a hell of a year,” Pitino said. “We just got to keep it up.”
The Red Storm (21-3, 12-1 Big East) have won 10 games in a row, which includes an 80-68 home victory over Villanova on Jan. 11 that represents the third win in this streak. RJ Luis Jr. collected 30 points while St. John’s frustrated Wildcats star Eric Dixon into 6-of-19 shooting.
“Coach Pitino is a great coach,” Dixon said after that game. “They came with a lot of different defenders and did a great job.”
Additionally, St. John’s crushed Villanova on the boards (44-28) with Luis grabbing 10 and Zuby Ejiofor snatching nine boards to go along with 11 points.
“As a team, collectively, we’re all crashing the boards, and I’m the one who ended up coming up with the rebound,” Luis said. “That’s what Coach said: We have that hustle and that grit to just play hard.”
More recently, St. John’s posted back-to-back wins against ranked foes. The team nipped Marquette and UConn last week, notching a 68-62 win over the Huskies on Friday as Luis scored 21 points and Kadary Richmond added all 13 of his points in the second half.
Luis is hoping to get back to the free-throw line at a similar pace as the first matchup against Villanova — when he shot 16 of 20 from the stripe. Since that game, Luis has attempted a total of 27 foul shots over the last seven games.
He also is hoping to improve his 3-point shooting after going 1 of 10 from long distance in the last two games.
Dixon is in a similar mood after shooting 4 of 16 from 3-point range over the last three games. He scored 24 points in Sunday’s win over Xavier and shot 50 percent from the floor after not reaching that mark in any of the previous eight games.
“I wouldn’t say anything really changed,” Dixon said. “They were running guys at me in the first half, but I thought gradually I began to get a feel for what they wanted to do. It’s always good to see the ball go through the basket.”
Dixon was one of three 20-point scorers against Xavier as Wooga Poplar went for 23 points and Tyler Perkins contributed 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting off the bench.
“I’m just trying to do whatever I can to help the team, whether that’s talking, energy, bringing the juice,” Perkins said.
Villanova (14-10, 7-6) has won two games in a row following a 1-5 stretch in which the team’s only win was a two-point nail-biter against Providence.
The Wildcats, amid a disappointing season, are still 2-1 against ranked foes this season. They topped No. 14 Cincinnati 68-60 in early December and slipped past UConn 68-66 in early January. More recently, they lost to Marquette Jan. 24.
–Field Level Media
