St. John’s is starting to have issues with finishing games.
In the most well-known sequence from the beloved 1992 movie “Glengarry Glen Ross,” Alec Baldwin’s character Blake, a top real estate salesman, addresses his fellow brokers by emphasizing the need of “Always be closing.”
This motto works in other situations, such as defeating rival teams in the competitive Big East league, but it hasn’t clicked with the St. John’s men’s basketball team this year. There’s a concerning pattern that appears when the Red Storm’s attack falters late in the game.
They lost stunningly to Boston College in December, blowing a 10-point lead in the second half of a “neutral” site game and surrendering 86 points to the Eagles.
When games get tighter and more competitive in the Big East, their lack of a killer instinct becomes more apparent. Glenn Taylor’s three-pointer with 4:15 remaining in the second half gave St. John’s a two-point advantage over UConn in December. Nevertheless, the Johnnies would only manage one more field goal until the end of the game, as UConn prevailed through clutch layups and free throws.
In their close one-point defeat against Creighton, St. John’s garnered a lot of attention due to controversial no-calls in the last minute. The drama, however, obscures the fact that the Red Storm also gave up a nine-point lead to Creighton in the second half and missed a great chance to take the lead late. Even though the Red Storm kept the Bluejays off the scoreboard for the last 4:46 of play, they failed to score at all in the last 2:02.
The match versus Marquette yesterday provided the most recent example of this anthology of offensive anemia. The Red Storm blew a 10-point first-half lead and let Marquette enjoy a 26-9 run at one point, which gave the Golden Eagles a 71-58 edge. St. John’s embarked on a 14-2 run that stopped Marquette from scoring for the final 6 minutes and 20 seconds, completely turning the tide of the game. Even after Marquette gifted them four consecutive missed free throws, they were still unable to complete the task. Chris Ledlum and Daniss Jenkins missed three-pointers, and Jenkins also missed a free throw that would have tied the game or at least sent it to OT, which doomed a second-half comeback attempt.
Despite their lack of offensive capability, they managed to win even in close victories. With roughly six minutes remaining in the Red Storm’s 49-38 advantage, St. John’s gave up the lead and the Mean Green went on a 14-2 run in their third game of the season versus North Texas. Joel Soriano’s two free throws with 1:11 remaining and strong defense kept the Red Storm from scoring another field goal in the last 3:38, as St. John’s edged off North Texas for good.
St. John’s wasted a 15-point lead in the first half and almost blew a 9-point lead in the second half en route to a 75-73 victory over Providence. They shot 3-of-8 from the free throw line and were unable to score in the last 2:39.
Their defense has been excellent in crucial situations to give them a chance to win the game, which makes their offensive inefficiency all the more maddening. However, they are unable to make the clutch basket when the chips are down. Because of their ability to make shots, Rick Pitino recruited a number of players to St. John’s, but he hasn’t yet found his go-to player when the Red Storm need a last-minute basket.
Throughout the course of the final twelve conference games, the guy might make an appearance, but St. John’s needs him to do so quickly to avoid falling behind late in games.
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