Kadary Richmond and Deivon Smith were the big transfer portal additions.
RJ Luis and Simeon Wilcher were the key returnees, the former finally healthy and the latter praised for his improvement after a quiet freshman season.
Thursday night, though, the best St. John’s player was Zuby Ejiofor. It’s no wonder Rick Pitino named him a starter weeks ago.
The 6-foot-9 forward, Joel Soriano’s backup last season, was a one-man interior wrecking crew in a 91-85 exhibition game victory over Rutgers and its star freshmen Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper at Jersey Mike’s Arena.
“When I first got him, they said he’s a 12-foot [jump shot] player and he’s a little bit limited in what he can do. I think you see what he can do,” Pitino said after Ejiofor went for 27 points, 13 rebounds and hit a 3-pointer in the come-from-behind victory. “I was trying to get him to pop out more and take open 3s. He made one, and he said he wanted to keep his percentage up.”
There were many positives for the Johnnies after a shaky first half that included a 22-0 Rutgers run.
Wilcher performed well, producing 15 points and six rebounds. Richmond (nine points, nine rebounds, six assists) and Smith had their moments, particularly late as the Johnnies closed with a 14-2 run.
Luis’ jumper looked improved, and he had 22 points, six rebounds and three assists. Bailey and Harper combined for 45 points for Rutgers, but they were slowed down late by the Johnnies.
Buy Ejiofor was the story.
He was dominant at both ends of the floor, looking like a player ready to make a massive leap.
“I love Zuby, that’s my dawg. He’s been my roommate since last year. It’s just great to be on the floor with him more this year than last year,” Luis said. “I feel Zuby stepped into a big role. He’s a captain, he’s a leader. I’m really excited for him.”
St. John’s held an edge in a lot of key statistics, from rebounding (plus-nine) to transition points (plus-nine) and points in the paint (plus-16) to second-chance points (plus-four).
They trailed most of the game, and by as many as 13 points early in the second half.
Pitino only went seven deep after halftime. He treated it like a real game in the final minutes.
“This was a great win for us,” Pitino said. “I wanted to see the character of our basketball team and I saw it tonight. I’m real proud of that. … We weren’t ready early in the year last year. So we wanted to get everybody in [during] the first half, but play to win in the second half.”
There were areas Pitino felt need improvement.
There were nine first-half turnovers.
St. John’s has to develop backup big men Vince Iwuchukwu and Rubey Prey so Ejiofor doesn’t have to be on the court at all times. Smith and Richmond are still getting used to one another.
But for the first game for this new group, it handled adversity well and showed some of the reasons Pitino believes it has a high ceiling.
“Like Coach P said, a win like this shows a lot about who we are as a team, our character. We dug deep tonight,” Ejiofor said. “We made some changes in the second half that ultimately got us the win. We never gave up. It was one possession at a time, little by little.”
