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One of Saturday’s most intriguing matchups features the experienced, fundamental players from Georgetown taking on the young, raw talent from St. John’s.
The Georgetown Hoyas (9-3, 1-0 in Big East Conference play) are riding a two-game winning streak while the St. John’s Red Storm (9-4, 0-1 in Big East Conference play) are coming off a 10-point loss to the Xavier Musketeers.
Two Preseason All-Big East First Team members go head-to-head in this matchup with the veteran point guard Markel Starks leading the way for Georgetown and the prolific scorer D’Angelo Harrison running things for St. John’s. Harrison enters Saturday’s game ranked No. 3 in conference scoring with 19.6 points per game while Starks leads his team in both scoring and passing with 16.3 points and 4.3 assists per game.
Rysheed Jordan, the 6-foot-4 freshman guard out of Philly, is coming off his best performance as a collegiate basketball player after scoring a career-high 17 points with six rebounds in St. John’s loss to Xavier. Jordan was a five-star prospect coming out of high school and was picked as the Preseason Big East Rookie of the Year. After a slow start to the season, Jordan has steadily improved and gotten more comfortable in the offense, scoring double-digit points in three out of his last four games.
The Georgetown attack is based on John Thompson III‘s Princeton-style offense, involving backdoor cuts and high-post passing. Aside from Starks, the Hoyas have two players averaging double-digit points, with D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera and Joshua Smith scoring 15.9 and 12.1 points per game, respectively. Smith, the former UCLA Bruin, anchors the Georgetown frontcourt, and with a 6-foot-10, 350-pound frame teams have more than enough trouble finding a way around him. Luckily for St. John’s, Chris Obekpa will match up well with Smith. The Nigerian big man led the NCAA in blocked shots last season, and he is putting up even bigger numbers this year by averaging 4.4 blocks and 5.6 rebounds per contest. Obekpa is playing 22 minutes per game, but he will likely get more playing time for this big-time matchup against Smith.
The key to St. John’s success is balance on offense. While Harrison is clearly the best scorer on the team, the Red Storm struggles when it relies too heavily on the junior. St. John’s is just 1-4 when Harrison takes 19 or more shots so it will have to look to other options if it wants to take down a strong defensive team like Georgetown.
The Red Storm has plenty of other players capable of supplementing Harrison’s scoring starting with Jakarr Sampson and Phil Greene IV. The two combine for the highest field goal percentage on the team, and Greene IV leads the team in three-point percentage at a 39.3 percent clip. Sampson does his work inside, averaging 12.5 points on 48.2 percent shooting. If St. John’s coach Steve Lavin can find a way to get these two some more touches, the Red Storm will have a good shot at upsetting the Hoyas.
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