Game Day Essentials: Game #3 vs St Johns

St. Johns

Head Coach: Mike Anderson
Location: Jamaica, NY (Queens)
Conference: Big East
Nickname: Officially: Red Storm. Unofficially: Johnnies, Redmen
Mascots: Johnny Thunderbird
Last time out: Beat Central Connecticut

Opening Line: St. Johns by 11

Other:  

• 2nd ever meeting between Nebraska and St. Johns. The Johnnies rolled the Huskers back in 2017, 79-56
• Former B1G players in Illinois' Andre Curbelo and Rutgers' Montez Mathis are on this team
• This matchup is part of the Gavitt Games, the early season series of games between the Big 10 and Big East. Nebraska is 1-3 all-time in these games.

Player to Watch: David Jones

Jones had a breakout season for DePaul last year and is making most everything this season, shooting 40% from 3 and 56.5% from 2.  At 6'6" he's also an above average rebounder and defender

KenPom Most Used Lineup

(Had more of a writeup but my computer ate it )

Here is a rip though from memory: Alexander and Curbelo can't shoot from outside, both are PGs and are problems on defense. Soriano plays 20 or so minutes, they have a 6'8" Forward and a raw 7'1" center as part of the rotation. Mathis doesn't shoot much but has been making most of them this season, a new thing for him. AJ Storr has a weird shot but he makes corner 3s. Dylan Addae-Wusu is a 6'4" 230# bowling ball that makes 3s.

Probable starters for Nebraska
5    Sam Griesel    G    6-7
25  Emmanuel Bandoumel    G    6-4

0   C.J. Wilcher    G    6-5

4   Juwan Gary  F  6-6

15   Blaise Keita C   6-11

Bench

30  Keisei Tominaga    G    6-2

32  Wilhelm Breidenbach    F    6-10

10  Jamarques Lawrence - G  6-3

12  Denim Dawson - F  6-6

33  Oleg Kojenets    F    7-0
12   Sam Hoiberg    G    6-0

31  Cale Jacobsen  G  6-4

35  Henry Burt  F  6-6

24  Jeffrey Grace III  G  6-3
* 13  Derrick Walker    F    6-9

Injured

3   Quaran McPherson   G   6-3 - Out for the Year

Redshirting

2    Ramel Lloyd   G  6-6

*Unavailable 

The Skinny: 

Long time coach Mike "40 Minutes of Hell" Anderson is in his 4th year at St Johns and still runs his up-tempo offense/pressure defense in an attempt to wear you down. Anderson returns what is likely his most talented and experienced team in NY in what is also likely a make or break season.  It's been an up and down 3 years for Anderson who has yet to make the tourney at this basketball school.

Thus far the Johnnies have been fairly unimpressive in 3 tune-up games, needing to turn it on after halftime in the last couple.  Give Anderson credit for the adjustments though as St Johns came out and punished Lafayette inside and threw a zone at Central Connecticut to put those games away. At no point should the Huskers feel safe in a close game as Anderson will have some sort of wrinkle ready to go.

The Nebraska guards have done a decent job taking care of the ball but you have to wonder just how cool under pressure Griesel and/or Bando will be when the Red Storms' small pesky guards aggressively try to force mistakes. If they can handle it, there are backdoor points or wide open shots to be found.  Not sure how often Nebraska will be able to post up those smaller guards as St Johns likes to switch in their man defense. Look for the Huskers to attempt to be methodical on offense while hoping to bait St Johns to take bad mid-range shots defensively; likely we see some zone from Nebraska to test out St John's outside shooting.

I think Nebraska has a puncher's chance in this game as St John's is likely to blow at least a few games this season and why not this one against a Husker squad that's had a week to gameplan. In order to win, Nebraska will have to weather a few runs in the bandbox that is Carnesecca Arena.  Look for Nebraska to stay in this game but simply not have the juice to keep up with the Redmen on the road.

Prediction: St John's 80 - Nebraska 73