The 2024-25 season was an essential one for the St. John’s basketball program. They gained the Large East championship for the primary time in 25 years, returned to relevance on a nationwide stage and established an identification underneath an all-time nice coach — Rick Pitino — that ought to make them a drive within the coming seasons.
They’re again on the map.
Their magical season ended on Saturday within the Spherical of 32 after they have been on the dropping finish of a 75-66 resolution towards No. 10 seed Arkansas.
It was not a shock as to what finally did them in.
They merely couldn’t make their photographs.
St. John’s shot simply 28% from the sphere (21-of-75) and solely 9% (2-of-22) from three-point vary.
No one was proof against the struggles, together with Large East Participant of the 12 months RJ Luis Jr., who completed the sport on the bench after taking pictures 3-of-17 from the sphere.
None of this could have been an excessive amount of of a shock for anyone who’s watched this St. John’s crew all season. For all of their strengths defensively, and for all of their grit and toughness that helped outline the tradition of the roster, they have been a persistently poor taking pictures crew all season. Particularly from deep.
The Crimson Storm completed the season one hundred and fifty fifth within the nation in total area objective proportion (45.1%) and 333rd (30.8%) from three-point vary.
If there was an Achilles heel with this crew, that was it.
It confirmed itself on the worst attainable crew on Saturday.
That needs to be the first focus for Pitino going into the offseason and in preparation for subsequent season. Particularly now that the brand new customary has been set for this system the place successful is once more going to change into the expectation. Their fashion of play this season labored nice all common season and all through the Large East event. However when the competitors will get harder deep into the event, and when each sport turns into one towards a top-tier crew, toughness and protection are solely going to take you up to now. At that time, it’s important to make some photographs.
