St. John's: What's the point? That's the problem
Kentucky center Malachi Moreno (24) dunks against St. John's forward Dillon Mitchell (1) during the first half of an NCAA basketball game, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, in Atlanta. Credit: AP/Mike Stewart
ATLANTA
St. John’s was seen as a national title contender just two months ago. Today, no one can really tell what the 22nd-ranked Red Storm will be. They very likely won’t have a number next to their name when the next AP Top 25 comes out Monday.
St. John’s, which already had lost its three games against other nationally ranked teams, missed out on its last chance for a signature non-conference win when Kentucky overcame an eight-point second-half deficit and blew past the Red Storm, 78-66, on Saturday in the CBS Sports Classic at State Farm Arena. And it’s difficult to find chances to improve its NCAA Tournament resume beyond piling up wins in the middling Big East and winning at least one of two February meetings with No. 5 UConn.
Rick Pitino finally gave an explicit answer about how his team slid from the preseason No. 5 team in the country to a 7-4 mark and this troubling place: He didn’t land the elite point guard the team needed, and now the Red Storm are trying to get by without one.
Kentucky came to life in the second half when starting point guard Jaland Lowe returned from a first-half shoulder injury, outscoring the Red Storm by 20 in his 14 minutes on the floor.
Asked about it, Pitino replied, “We don't have somebody coming in like him. That's our fault as a staff for not having a big-time point guard that makes people better . . . That's a big factor with us right now.”
Point guard started to become a big concern when St. John’s was working the NCAA transfer portal after its wildly successful 31-win Big East championship season ended with a second-round loss to Arkansas in the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
St. John's wanted Princeton transfer Xaivian Lee before he chose to go to Florida and Georgia transfer Silas Demary Jr. before he chose UConn. When North Carolina shooting guard Ian Jackson committed, Pitino declared him “the next great” St. John’s point guard. Late in the process, prototypical point guard Dylan Darling was brought in from Idaho State to be the backup.
“That's our fault in recruiting,” Pitino said. “We lost out on four different big-time point guards that we went after, and we've got to make the best of a situation by collectively [having] other people handling the ball and bringing it up.”
In the run-up to the season, Pitino raised eyebrows with his answers whenever he was asked about the point guard situation. He called the position “obsolete.” He said the St. John’s offense didn’t require a point guard.
When those comments were brought up to him Saturday, Pitino initially went on the offensive.
“What would you like me to say? I'm waiting for Tiny Archibald to come back?” he said. “That's what you have to do when you don't have one: You make a positive from a negative and say we've got to do it collectively as a team. You want me to just complain and get their confidence down? Is that what you're looking for?”
Pitino has found ways to overcome major flaws on his teams. St. John’s was an abominable shooting team last season and overcame it by becoming one of the nation's best teams at rebounding and defending. So while it may have become a heavy lift to get a great NCAA Tournament seeding this time around, the Red Storm still could end up very, very good.
After trying Oziyah Sellers and Darling as starting point guards, it appears the move is to give Jackson the job and hope he develops in it. He is an exceptional basketball player, just one playing out of position.
“Just got to make the best of it when that happens — it’s like an injury,” Pitino said. “You have a key injury — Kentucky has a key injury to Lowe — and they become much stronger. We’ve got to become much stronger. I can't do anything about the point guard spot, but we've got to do a better job in the backcourt . . . Ian is getting better.”
Jackson might have been the Red Storm's best player Saturday with 10 points, six rebounds and two assists. Bryce Hopkins had 13 points and Zuby Ejiofor and Joson Sanon added 12 apiece, but the trio shot a combined 7-for-27.
Otega Oweh had 20 points, Lowe added 13 and Jayden Quaintance — in his return from March knee surgery — had 10 points and eight rebounds for the Wildcats, who fell behind by 10 late in the first half but turned a 41-33 deficit into a 52-43 lead and went ahead by as many as 15 points.
Part of compensating for the major flaw is going to be rebounding and defense, and both are going to have to get much better to accomplish the goal. Against the Wildcats (8-4), neither was very good. In the second half, Kentucky shot 54.5% from the floor, scored 53 points to the Red Storm’s 34 and got 10 offensive rebounds it turned into 12 points.
Pitino has been exhorting the players to take on a more physical style. Perhaps this loss will be the catalyst.
“I feel like every person on the team’s just got to look themselves in the mirror and just realize that in order to have a successful season, we got to be able to make some changes in our character and ourselves personally,” Ejiofor said. “Everybody’s just really got to be committed to doing whatever it takes to win, as we did last year.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
