By Miguel Mike Medina
Photo Credit: The Providence Journal
No. 2 St John’s Red Storm dominated No. 15 Omaha Mavericks, 83-53.
The Red Storm scored 50 points in the second half. St John’s led 33-28 in the first half and outscored Mavericks 50-25 in the second half.
RJ Luis Jr led the Red Storm with 22 points and eight rebounds. Simeon Wilcher added 13 points in 26 minutes. Kadary Richmond added 10 points, eight rebounds and six assists. Zuby Ejiofor had 10 points with seven rebounds and four assists.
The Johnnies were very confident shooting threes in the second half. St John’s made 14 3-pointers, the most in a tournament game in their program history. The team was relentless, especially on defense.
“Our defense was excellent,” Pitino said. “We changed our defense in the second half, which greatly helped us. But just wasn’t happy giving up 24-second shots.”
Pitino is not easy to impress or satisfy. He knows how to challenge his players and is a genius at changing a program’s culture. Pitino recently received the U.S. Basketball Writers’ Association’s Henry Iba National Coach of the Year award, becoming the second Red Storm coach to receive the honor.
His next mission won’t be easy, and he will see a familiar face: John Calipari.
The Arkansas Razorbacks coach and Pitino have a lot of history. Both teams will meet on Saturday for the Round of 32. Calipari led the Razorbacks to an upset victory over the Kansas Jayhawks on Thursday.
Calipari and Pitino are 2-2 in head-to-head matchups in the NCAA Tournament. Their last meeting was in 2014 when Calipari coached Kentucky and Pitino for Louisville. Calipari and the Wildcats won that game. Pitino hasn’t beaten a team coached by Calipari since 1996.
We are tuned in for an incredible matchup between two rivals. Razorbacks and Red Storm will play at 2:40 pm.
https://twitter.com/StJohnsBBall/status/1902946987466449091
Miguel Mike Medina is the publisher of The MMM Journal. He can be reached at medinamiguelmike@gmail.com and themmmjournal@gmail.com
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