The last chance for St. John’s to bolster its nonconference resume comes at an emotional time.
In their first game since Lou Carnesecca passed away, the Red Storm host Kansas State in the Big 12-Big East Battle on Saturday in New York in the small arena named for the legendary coach.
The Red Storm (6-2) are playing their final contest against a power-conference opponent before opening Big East games on Dec. 17. St John’s sandwiched a blowout win over Virginia on Nov. 22 around setbacks to Baylor and Georgia by a combined four points in the Bahamas two weeks ago.
St. John’s will face Kansas State one week after Carnesecca died shortly before his 100th birthday and 32 years after he retired from coaching the school to 526 victories. The Red Storm will wear patches that say “Lou” on their uniforms for the rest of the season, and the game will be preceded by a video tribute and a moment of silence.
“I along with all the other coaches who coached here are caretakers of Lou’s legacy,” coach Rick Pitino said on an appearance with WFAN earlier this week. “That’s all we are. We’re caretakers at St. John’s of what Lou built, and I’m very proud to be a caretaker of Lou’s legacy.”
St. John’s has been idle since its 77-64 win over Harvard last Saturday. RJ Luis Jr. continued his strong start with 24 points and Kadary Richmond added 18 in a game in which the Red Storm never trailed.
“They’re the deepest, most talented team and they’re very, very athletic,” Pitino said of Kansas State. “What they do is our weakness, which is the thing that scares me the most. They are a great 3-point shooting team.”
Kansas State (6-2) is playing its first true road game and second against a power-conference opponent. The Wildcats are making 38.1 percent of their 3-point attempts but shot just 23.8 percent from the arc in their 76-65 loss to LSU on Nov. 14.
David N’Guessan is the Wildcats’ leading scorer (14.1) and scored 17 in their 120-73 rout of Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Sunday. Achor Achor led the team with 21 points off the bench while Dug McDaniel added 18 in a game in which Kansas State shot 61.5 percent from the floor and hit 21 of 40 from beyond the arc.
“I feel like the team is starting to figure each other out,” Kansas State coach Jerome Tang said. “The staff, we’re starting to figure the guys out, so it’s going to be a great challenge for us, one game at a time, to see how much we can continue to grow.”
–Field Level Media
