After suffering a devastating 43-point defeat to Uconn, Xavier needs to recover.
This is what collegiate basketball is all about: Rick Pitino and Sean Miller will be facing off against one another on the same court on Wednesday night.
Pitino’s St. John’s team had suffered three straight defeats before to destroying Villanova by 20 points on January 24. Joel Soriano, a senior center who was born in New York, has been the Red Storm’s top scorer so far this season, averaging slightly over 16 points per game. His 21-point performance against the Wildcats was more than sufficient. Additionally, he is averaging just under 10 boards each game. Soriano scored an average of just 10 points per game in the team’s three straight defeats against Creighton, Seton Hall, and Marquette. St. John’s X-Factor is Soriano.
Point guard Daniss Jenkins, who averages 13.1 points and 5.8 assists per game, plays next to Soriano. Jenkins’ assist rate ranks him 22nd in the nation, while his assist average is good enough to rank him 27th in the nation, per KenPom.com. He has given out at least five assists in each of St. John’s conference victories. His squad may also count on him to score baskets, as his points average suggests.
The backcourt combination of Quincy Olivari and Desmond Claude for Xavier is among the finest in the nation. Together, Olivari and Claude score 33.8 points per game on average thanks to Olivari’s 17.8 points per game average and Claude’s 16 points per game. Averaging 75.8 points per game, the Musketeers are a formidable team. In the team’s most recent triumph, which came more than a week ago, the pair scored 46 points to defeat Georgetown by a single point.
This season, these two Big East rivals have already faced off, with the Red Storm winning 81-66 in front of their home crowd. The rookie Trey Green added ten points, and Olivari and Claude scored thirteen and twenty-one points, respectively, but the Musketeers managed nothing else. Five players for St. John’s scored in double digits, including Soriano, who finished with six blocks, five assists, 14 rebounds, and 18 points. I haven’t seen a better stat line from any guy in the nation this season than that one.
Rebounding from a devastating 43-point loss to UConn is imperative for Xavier. It will not be easy for the Musketeers to slow down Soriano, but they will have to. Olivari and Claude will require assistance in order to minimize the influence that playmaker Jenkins possesses. Fans of Xavier will be there in droves to watch the squad get over the humiliation of its crushing loss to the Huskies, as this is its first home game since January 19.
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