New season comes with heightened expectations for St. John’s in 2021
(PHOTO COURTESY OF ST. JOHN’S RED STORM ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT)
College basketball has officially returned for the 2021-22 season. That also means head coach Mike Anderson returns with a new look Red Storm squad.
One of the key figures to identify is junior forward Julian Champagnie and his sidekick in reigning Freshman and Defensive Player of the Year, Posh Alexander. The rest of the team, aside from the lethal combination? Nine new names you may have heard elsewhere throughout college campuses around the country.
The Red Storm has an entirely new squad aside from now-sophomore Dylan Addae-Wusu and the duo mentioned above.
This past offseason was like a professional sports' free agency period for those new to the college basketball scene. Players were able to enter their names into the transfer portal without sitting out a year and redshirt.
Enter graduate guards Stef Smith, Tariq Coburn, and Aaron Wheeler. Along with senior guard from Rutgers Montez Mathis and former Fordham center Joel Soriano.
All sounds dandy on paper; how about the chemistry on the court with just ONE preseason to get to know each other?
"I think we're still in that learning phase with one another." Says Anderson during Monday's media availability session. "We have guys that are just coming back. Julian [Champagnie] has only been back for a couple of weeks now, so we still understand roles."
St. John's has played a pair of games thus far in a known exhibition against Division III's Baruch College and a closed-door scrimmage, where they fell in the last contest. Can you read too much into these two contests to start panicking? No. Not really.
Ranked number 357 out of 358 Division I college basketball teams by Sports Illustrated magazine, the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils will be the due-up first for the Red Storm inside Carnesecca Arena.
The first game starts a schedule that includes Saint Peters, St. Francis Brooklyn, NJIT, Monmouth, and Fairleigh Dickinson. The games against Indiana, Kansas, and Pittsburgh are intended to be the premier games of the Johnnies' questionable non-conference schedule in terms of strength and readiness for a "put up or shut up" conference season.
Fo the first time since Tariq Owens back in 2017-18 under the Mullin regime, the Red Storm will be occupying the frontcourt with a student-athlete over the height of six foot eight inches. This is a big deal, due in large part, that St. John's has ranked in the bottom portion of the statistical charts in conference play in rebounds and overall defense.
Enter Fordham graduate Joel Soriano.
In the closed-door scrimmage, the Yonkers native tallied 16 points and nine caroms against the University of Rhode Island. In recent memory, the Johnnies had had a problem against Providence, Seton Hall, and Marquette, when Nate Watson, Angel Delgado, Sandro Mamukelashvili, and Theo John were the frontcourt presence for their respective programs. Only one of the mentioned will be a force to be reckoned with this upcoming season, and that's Nate Watson. We didn't even bother mentioning Indiana (AP All-American Trayce Jackson-Davis) and Kansas, as the two programs are givens in terms of down-low presence.
Following years of mediocrity on the corner of Utopia Parkway and Union Turnpike, it seems (for the third time in the last five or so years), the Red Storm has turned the page into a perennial threat in the Big East and a serious contender to go dancing in March. Do they have what it takes to make some noise? That will all be determined this upcoming season.
The coaches pegged St. John's to finish fourth in the preseason Big East Coaches' Poll back on Big East Media Day last month. So, there's a lot of confidence in this squad around the league.
"There's a little difference in expectations. We know it's there. At the same time, we don't think about it too often. It's not something that we necessarily feel. We know it because it's kind of hard to get away from it, but it's not something that we necessarily feel." Commented Anderson.
Looking to tonight's contest against Mississippi Valley State, too premature to say that questions about this team may be answered tonight, but we will get a better clue as to what we're all wondering about. Will we find it all out in the next week? Probably not, but it's a start.
Due to Dylan Addae-Wusu nursing a lower-body injury, who steps up alongside Champagnie and Alexander?
Which freshmen will contribute? Can they pry minutes away from an experienced but chemistry-lacking Red Storm team?
"I think, more importantly, now that we've played somebody other than ourselves, we can see if we can get those guys [the new guys] to come and give us some quality minutes whenever they do get in the game. I think, for the most part, the guys are getting a grasp of what we want to do. There's another level I want to get to. We want to come out playing good basketball. Mississippi Valley [State] allows us to start the season, so tomorrow is going to be a big day for us." Concluded Anderson.