College Basketball: Holiday Hoops Preview

Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

Dec. 19 – St. Mary’s at St. John’s (8pm on Fox Sports One)

Interesting fact — Steve Lavin is 0-4 against the West Coast Conference as head coach of the Red Storm. His first season at St. John’s started with a loss to St. Mary’s in Moraga, and later ended with an NCAA tournament loss to Gonzaga. Last year the Johnnies were shockingly blown out at San Francisco. This season, their lone loss to date came against Gonzaga in the Preseason NIT. A similar result could be in the cards when the Gaels travel to Queens in desperate need of a profile-enhancing win.

While it’s obvious that the Gaels need all the help they can get in terms of quality wins (especially after uncharacteristically dropping a game to Northern Arizona), St. John’s may need this game later on as well. The Gaels are annually on the tournament bubble, and there is a chance that a 23-win St. Mary’s team could be St. John’s best non-conference win by season’s end. Their current body of work highlights decent wins over Minnesota and Syracuse, two teams who could take several lumps in the Big Ten and ACC respectively. If the Johnnies struggle in the conference (they started 0-5 in the Big East last year), they may find themselves hanging their hat on games like this in March.

As for the game, the Gaels only chance to win lies in the large capable hands of center Brian Waldow. St. John’s is incredibly deep (even down to the walk-ons), but none of their depth is in the front court. Chris Obekpa, the nation’s preeminent shot-blocker, will stand in Waldow’s way initially. However, not much of anything comes after Obekpa. When the sole big man sits, Lav opts for a five guard look that involves a flurry of pressing and shooting that is wildly entertaining, but equally unpredictable.

KEY TO THE GAME: Can Brian Waldow keep Chris Obekpa off the floor? If he does, can Stanford transfer Aaron Bright navigate the Red Storm’s five-guard pressure defense?