Game Day Essentials
St. John’s Red Storm (2-0) at Indiana Hoosiers (2-0)
- Tip Time: 9:00pm EST
- Location: Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, Bloomington, Indiana
- Television: FS1 (Kevin Kugler, Stephen Bardo)
- Radio: IU Radio Network
- Point Spread: Indiana is around a 5-point favorite
- KenPom Projected Score: Indiana W, 76-72
- Series: Indiana leads the series 5-2
- See also:
Meet St. John’s Mike Anderson
Anderson’s first head coaching gig was at UAB in 2002-06 where he led the Blazers to 20-plus wins and a postseason berth in each of his four campaigns at the helm. Following UAB, Anderson spent five seasons as the head coach at Missouri, where he lead the Tigers to a 111-57 (.661) overall record. He came to St. John’s following eight seasons as head coach at Arkansas (2011-19). Indiana faced Anderson’s 2018-19 Arkansas squad twice and earned a split.
In the entirety of his coaching career, Anderson has lead his teams to 12 postseason appearances in 19 seasons as a head coach, including nine trips to the NCAA tournament.
In Spring of 2019, Anderson, was named the 21st head coach in the history of the St. John’s Men’ basketball program. After his second season in Queens, Anderson was named the Big East Coach of the Year, the first St. John’s head man to gain the recognition since 1993. In 2020-21, St. John’s finished their season with a record of 16-11, including a 10-9 mark in the Big East play. The winning record conference record was the first such effort for the Red Storm since 2014-15. Anderson is one of three current NCAA Division 1 coach with 15-plus years of head coaching experience and zero losing seasons.
You can watch Anderson talk about the matchup with Indiana here:
Late Game: A Win Over Saint Peter’s
The Red Storm jumped out to an early lead and never looked back on Saturday at Carnesecca Arena, driving to a 91-70 win over Saint Peter’s. With the win, St. John’s improved to 20-0 all-time against Saint Peter’s dating back to their first meeting in 1910. St. John’s carried a 47-27 advantage into halftime and led by as many as 27 points early in the second half. The Johnnies led by no fewer than 17 at any point later in the game.
About the Series with Indiana
St. John’s will meet Indiana for the eighth time in program history. Two of the seven prior meetings came in postseason play, including a 86-61 St. John’s win in the second round of the 1999 NCAA Tournament in Orlando. Two of the top-10 winningest programs in Division 1 history, St. John’s and Indiana first met on Feb. 2, 1952.
Projected Starters (St. John’s)
#0 Posh Alexander: Guard, 6-0, Sophomore
- PPG: 15.0, APG: 8.0
#2 Julian Champagnie: Forward, 6-8, Junior
- PPG: 21.0, RPG: 4.0
#3 Stef Smith: Guard, 6-2, Gr.
- PPG: 5.5, RPG: 3.5
#11 Joel Soriano: Center, 6-11, Junior
- PPG: 9.5, RPG: 9.0
#23 Montez Mathis: Guard, 6-4, Senior
- PPG: 9.0, RPG: 4.5
Off The Bench
#1 Aaron Wheeler: Forward, 6-9, Gr.
- PPG: 8.5, RPG: 6.5
#4 O’Mar Stanley: Forward, 6-8, Freshman
- PPG: 10.0, RPG: 3.5
#5: Dylan Addae-Wusu: Guard, 6-4, Sophomore
- PPG: 5.5, RPG: 2.0
#10 Taren Coburn: Guard, 6-5, Gr.
- PPG: 15.0, RPG: 2.5
#22 Esahia Nyiwe: Forward, 6-10, Junior
- PPG: 2.0, RPG: 1.0
#24 Rafael Pinzon: Guard, 6-6, Freshman
- PPG: 3.5, APG: 2.5
A Closer Look at St. John’s and Their Win Over Saint Peter’s
Junior wing Julian Champagnie surpassed the 20-point plateau for the second time in as many opportunities this season, posting 22 points on 6-of-13 shooting, including a 5-for-10 showing from deep. Midway through the second half, graduate transfer Tareq Coburn recorded his 1,000th collegiate point on a midrange jumper. Posh Alexander matched a career-high with nine assists and scored 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Using back-to-back threes from Alexander and Champagnie to kick off the contest, the Red Storm was able to grab a 13-5 lead at the first media timeout.
In a postgame interview after Saturday’s game against Saint Peter’s, coach Anderson was asked about his team’s preparation to face Indiana this Wednesday.
“It is another test,” he said… “Heading to Indiana, we have to continue to grow to get better. That’s the biggest key. We can get better in a lot of departments. In the second half, we gave up (43) points tonight. We let them eventually win the rebound war because we were ahead. We can still clean up some things. We have to continue to execute when we’re up.”
All five previous starters from the last game are projected to start again against Indiana, including 2021-22 Preseason All-Big East Second Team selection Posh Alexander is tied for eighth in Division One, averaging 8.0 assists per game. Junior guard and forward Julian Champagnie is a player for the Indiana Hoosiers to keep an eye out for as he led the Big East in scoring 19.8 PPG and has a free-throw percentage of 88.7 in 2020-21.
Stef Smith, a two-time American East All-Conference selection at Vermont, and Joel Soriano, a center who has registered 14 career double-doubles, including eight last season are two more players to look out for on the court. Lastly, Montez Mathis recorded double figures 33 times during his three season at Rutgers and started all 31 appearances as a sophomore in 2019-20 before transferring to St. John’s.
The Red Storm are the No. 1 team in America at effective field goal percentage, converting on 70 percent of their 2-point shots and 48.1 percent of their threes. They are also No. 26 in effective field goal percentage on the defensive end, at 39.8 percent.
St. John’s landed in the No. 4 spot on the Big East Conference preseason coaches poll for their 2021-22 season.
The Daily Hoosier –“Where Indiana fans assemble when they’re not at Assembly”
- Find us on Facebook: thedailyhoosier
- You can follow us on Twitter: @daily_hoosier
- Seven ways to support completely free IU coverage at no cost to you.
