NCAA Basketball: Predicting when the last 11 undefeated teams of 2018-19 will fall
St. John’s (7-0)
The Red Storm have had all of the luck in the world as the season rapidly neared. Be it the good fortune of having a guard as dynamic as Shamorie Ponds, or making a killing on the transfer market, the Storm have been able to provide a roster worth taking note of for opposing Big East foes.
With the last-minute addition of Mustapha Heron from Auburn, the Johnnie’s were poised for a nice start but not many thought 7-0 was plausible. However, it’s fair to question the legitimacy of the start that Chris Mullin and his team have seen thus far.
Even though they earned an easy 84-65 win, their only true road game in November was when the Red Storm took a grueling 70 minute drive to the Rutgers campus to face their neighbors in near by New Jersey.
Closing out the month, the Johnnie’s had a tough task with Georgia Tech, whom they squeaked out a win against, 76-73.
St. John’s however get to enjoy a stretch of Mount Saint Mary’s, Princeton, Wagner, St. Francis NY and Sacred Heart all before presents are delivered, and all are slated to be home games.
With the next challenge not being till December 29th at Seton Hall, it’s fair to say that St. John’s makes it in to 2019 unscathed. Seton Hall struggles to shoot the ball from deep (28.3 3pt%), but does a fairly good job from inside the arc shooting at a 52.7 clip.
The key-factor being the Johnnie’s currently only allow their opponents to shoot 48.0% from inside the arc, good for 99th in the country. Given the proximity of the schools, it’s hard to consider this a true road game for SJU. Logic dictates that things will fall more into place with new faces Mustapha Heron and LJ Figueroa by then as well.
I’ll predict that the Johnnie’s get a slight dose of reality when Marquette and Markus Howard make their scheduled visit on New Year’s Day.