cferraro04
Sensei
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
- Messages
- 2,088
- Reaction Score
- 9,572
COMMENTS
St. John's has an RPI ranking of 74 and a SOS rating of 59...their projected RPI is 122 and their projected SOS is 60. So far the teams they have played have the following RPIs: 337, 214, 239, 178, 146, 127, 85, 79, 75, 42, 24, 23, 14. UConn has played teams with the following RPI rankings: 223, 137, 92, 76, 65, 56, 53, 51, 17, 14, 13, 9, 4, 3.
Interestingly, St. John's starts 4 transfer students Unique Drake being the only starter who played her whole career for the Johnnies. Drake was a four-star recruit and was rated 75th overall and was 22nd at her position coming out of high school. She is St. John's most productive player averaging 19.6 points...she hits 42 percent of her 3-pointers, averaging 2.7 per game. She is a high-volume shooter averaging 17 shots per game.
Jillian Archer is St. John's best rebounder averaging 7.4 per game. Before she transferred to St. John's she played 2 years at Georgetown where she averaged 8 points and 7 rebounds per game. She had to sit out the 2019-2020 season due to transfer rules after transferring to Georgetown from USC, where she had appeared in 18 games during the 2018-2019 season.
Phoenix is a fellow countryman of Aaliyah Edwards hailing from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Before transferring to St. John's Phoenix played at Robert Morris. She was All-Horizon League Third Team as a sophomore where she led her team with 13.0 pts and 8.0 rebounds per game. She scored double figures in 25 games in her last year at Robert Morris. Since she has transferred to St. John's she has gotten off to a slow start averaging 2 points and 4.6 rebounds, however, she scored 5 points and grabbed 9 rebounds against Xavier and had a 6-point, 10 rebound effort against Rhode Island.
Ber'nyah Mayo was ranked the #3 player coming out of Delaware. She was Delaware All-State First Team. She played basketball at UMass from 2020-2023. As a Junior Ber'nyah was Atlantic-10 All-Conference 2nd Team and was the Atlantic-10 All-Tournament MVP. Averaged 12.6 points, 4.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.5 steals per game. Her 85 steals set a UMass single-season school record. She recorded a career-high 10 assists against Arizona State. This season Ber'nyah is averaging 9.5 points, 3 assists, and 1.5 steals per game. She had 4 steals against Marquette. Against Marist, she had 8 points, 7 assists, and 3 steals.
Tare Dage - Played her freshman year at DePaul but only started in one game. She averaged 11.8 minutes per game. She shot 42.3 percent from the floor. She was the freshman of the week on Feb. 6. She had a season-high 10 points against Creighton. She dished out 12 assists against Xavier and she had a career-high 8 rebounds against St. John's. This season she is averaging 3.5 points and 3.1 rebounds in 22.4 minutes of play per game. She had 10 points and 4 rebounds against Providence. She had 8 points and 9 rebounds against Creighton.
St. John's does not put a lot of points on the board (59.8) nor do they allow their opponents to do so neither (54.5). As a team, they shoot 42 percent from the floor, and they shoot 3s at 32 percent. They shoot foul shots at 76 percent taking 14.2 foul shots per game. They are not a good rebounding team only grabbing 30.6 rebounds per game. They do a fairly good job of taking care of the basket ball only committing 13.4 turnovers while forcing their opponents to turn the ball over 17.4 times per game. St. John's averages 7.2 steals per game.
This should be another game where Ice, Qadence, Ines, and Amari get significant playing time as Geno continues to give minutes to the reserves in the hopes of getting them more confidence so that they will be able to contribute when they are needed. I would look for Geno to apply on-ball pressure until the score gets away from St. John's then the reserves will come in to see if they can give quality minutes. I don't think that St. John's will offer that much of a game but, with all the transfers in the Johnnies line-up trying to find their sea-legs and trying to create some team chemistry you never know if something will click in this game. I think Geno will keep this game in the mid-80s to low 90s.
ANALYSIS
Aaliyah Edwards 6'3" vs Jillian Archer 6'2" - This could be a fun match-up Aaliyah 16.7 and 8/2 vs Jillian 11.0 and 7.4. Aaliyah should be able to free-wheel her way around the paint in this one.
ADVANTAGE - UCONN
Paige Bueckers 6'0" vs Phoenix Gedeon 6'0" - I didn't know where Paige would match up in this one. Certainly, Phoenix is not the same caliber player that Paige is but the thought of putting Paige on a 5'7 or 5'6 guard just didn't seem like something Geno would do. So, unfortunately for Phoenix, she will probably get schooled in this match-up. ADVANTAGE - UCONN
Nika Muhl 5'11" vs Ber'nyah Mayo 5'6" - Nika has the height advantage over Ber'nyah and will be able to shoot over her. Ber'nyah is a pretty good defender so Nika will have to take care of the basketball. Also, Nika needs to be careful in this one not to get into foul trouble. Ber'nyah is averaging 9.5 points, 2.9 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 1 and a half steals per game. Nika is averaging 6.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game. Nika's defense is stellar and I expect her if very difficult for Ber"nyah to do the things she likes to do. ADVANTAGE - UCONN
KK Arnold 5'9" vs Unique Drake 5'7" - Now here we go with a wild match-up. Normally, I would be concerned with the fact that Unique is a red-shirt senior and KK is only a freshman but as many have pointed out KK isn't playing like a freshman. Her defense is annoying...but, Unique in keeping with her name is a special player, and KK will have to work very hard on the defensive end to contain her. Unique is a consistent stat stuffer averaging 19.6 points, 1.9 rebounds, 2.76 three-pointers, and 1.2 assists per game. Unique will also have her hands full trying to contain the crafty KK Annold. KK is averaging 10.1 points, 2.3 rebounds, 2.88 assists, and 2.6 steals per game. While on paper Unique should have this match-up because of KK Arnold's ability to disrupt her opponents I am going to call this one... ADVANTAGE - EVEN
Ashlynn Shade 5'10" vs Tare Daye 5'10" - Ashlynn is not playing like a freshman and she is putting up some consistent numbers. Ashlynn is averaging 11 points, 2.1 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.3 three-pointers. Tare is averaging 3.5 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.1 assists. ADVANTAGE - UCONN
BENCH
St. John's will bring 13 points and 6.4 rebounds off the bench. UConn will bring 10.6 points and 6.8 rebounds off the bench. However, this being said, I think our bench will see significant mintues in this game, and with additional minutes will come increased stats. ADVANTAGE - UCONN
INTANGIBLES
This game is a home game for the Johnnies...they will have the advantage of the home crowd's energy and maybe being home will give them more incentive and motivate them to exceed expectations however, the talent, athleticism, and team chemistry that UConn brings will more than negate any advantage the home floor provides St. John's. ADVANTAGE - UCONN
COACHING
I know, I know I sound like a broken record but, it is what it is... ADVANTAGE - UCONN
SCORE
UConn - 87
ST. John's - 45
MOV - 42
St. John's has an RPI ranking of 74 and a SOS rating of 59...their projected RPI is 122 and their projected SOS is 60. So far the teams they have played have the following RPIs: 337, 214, 239, 178, 146, 127, 85, 79, 75, 42, 24, 23, 14. UConn has played teams with the following RPI rankings: 223, 137, 92, 76, 65, 56, 53, 51, 17, 14, 13, 9, 4, 3.
Interestingly, St. John's starts 4 transfer students Unique Drake being the only starter who played her whole career for the Johnnies. Drake was a four-star recruit and was rated 75th overall and was 22nd at her position coming out of high school. She is St. John's most productive player averaging 19.6 points...she hits 42 percent of her 3-pointers, averaging 2.7 per game. She is a high-volume shooter averaging 17 shots per game.
Jillian Archer is St. John's best rebounder averaging 7.4 per game. Before she transferred to St. John's she played 2 years at Georgetown where she averaged 8 points and 7 rebounds per game. She had to sit out the 2019-2020 season due to transfer rules after transferring to Georgetown from USC, where she had appeared in 18 games during the 2018-2019 season.
Phoenix is a fellow countryman of Aaliyah Edwards hailing from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Before transferring to St. John's Phoenix played at Robert Morris. She was All-Horizon League Third Team as a sophomore where she led her team with 13.0 pts and 8.0 rebounds per game. She scored double figures in 25 games in her last year at Robert Morris. Since she has transferred to St. John's she has gotten off to a slow start averaging 2 points and 4.6 rebounds, however, she scored 5 points and grabbed 9 rebounds against Xavier and had a 6-point, 10 rebound effort against Rhode Island.
Ber'nyah Mayo was ranked the #3 player coming out of Delaware. She was Delaware All-State First Team. She played basketball at UMass from 2020-2023. As a Junior Ber'nyah was Atlantic-10 All-Conference 2nd Team and was the Atlantic-10 All-Tournament MVP. Averaged 12.6 points, 4.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.5 steals per game. Her 85 steals set a UMass single-season school record. She recorded a career-high 10 assists against Arizona State. This season Ber'nyah is averaging 9.5 points, 3 assists, and 1.5 steals per game. She had 4 steals against Marquette. Against Marist, she had 8 points, 7 assists, and 3 steals.
Tare Dage - Played her freshman year at DePaul but only started in one game. She averaged 11.8 minutes per game. She shot 42.3 percent from the floor. She was the freshman of the week on Feb. 6. She had a season-high 10 points against Creighton. She dished out 12 assists against Xavier and she had a career-high 8 rebounds against St. John's. This season she is averaging 3.5 points and 3.1 rebounds in 22.4 minutes of play per game. She had 10 points and 4 rebounds against Providence. She had 8 points and 9 rebounds against Creighton.
St. John's does not put a lot of points on the board (59.8) nor do they allow their opponents to do so neither (54.5). As a team, they shoot 42 percent from the floor, and they shoot 3s at 32 percent. They shoot foul shots at 76 percent taking 14.2 foul shots per game. They are not a good rebounding team only grabbing 30.6 rebounds per game. They do a fairly good job of taking care of the basket ball only committing 13.4 turnovers while forcing their opponents to turn the ball over 17.4 times per game. St. John's averages 7.2 steals per game.
This should be another game where Ice, Qadence, Ines, and Amari get significant playing time as Geno continues to give minutes to the reserves in the hopes of getting them more confidence so that they will be able to contribute when they are needed. I would look for Geno to apply on-ball pressure until the score gets away from St. John's then the reserves will come in to see if they can give quality minutes. I don't think that St. John's will offer that much of a game but, with all the transfers in the Johnnies line-up trying to find their sea-legs and trying to create some team chemistry you never know if something will click in this game. I think Geno will keep this game in the mid-80s to low 90s.
ANALYSIS
Aaliyah Edwards 6'3" vs Jillian Archer 6'2" - This could be a fun match-up Aaliyah 16.7 and 8/2 vs Jillian 11.0 and 7.4. Aaliyah should be able to free-wheel her way around the paint in this one.
ADVANTAGE - UCONN
Paige Bueckers 6'0" vs Phoenix Gedeon 6'0" - I didn't know where Paige would match up in this one. Certainly, Phoenix is not the same caliber player that Paige is but the thought of putting Paige on a 5'7 or 5'6 guard just didn't seem like something Geno would do. So, unfortunately for Phoenix, she will probably get schooled in this match-up. ADVANTAGE - UCONN
Nika Muhl 5'11" vs Ber'nyah Mayo 5'6" - Nika has the height advantage over Ber'nyah and will be able to shoot over her. Ber'nyah is a pretty good defender so Nika will have to take care of the basketball. Also, Nika needs to be careful in this one not to get into foul trouble. Ber'nyah is averaging 9.5 points, 2.9 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 1 and a half steals per game. Nika is averaging 6.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game. Nika's defense is stellar and I expect her if very difficult for Ber"nyah to do the things she likes to do. ADVANTAGE - UCONN
KK Arnold 5'9" vs Unique Drake 5'7" - Now here we go with a wild match-up. Normally, I would be concerned with the fact that Unique is a red-shirt senior and KK is only a freshman but as many have pointed out KK isn't playing like a freshman. Her defense is annoying...but, Unique in keeping with her name is a special player, and KK will have to work very hard on the defensive end to contain her. Unique is a consistent stat stuffer averaging 19.6 points, 1.9 rebounds, 2.76 three-pointers, and 1.2 assists per game. Unique will also have her hands full trying to contain the crafty KK Annold. KK is averaging 10.1 points, 2.3 rebounds, 2.88 assists, and 2.6 steals per game. While on paper Unique should have this match-up because of KK Arnold's ability to disrupt her opponents I am going to call this one... ADVANTAGE - EVEN
Ashlynn Shade 5'10" vs Tare Daye 5'10" - Ashlynn is not playing like a freshman and she is putting up some consistent numbers. Ashlynn is averaging 11 points, 2.1 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.3 three-pointers. Tare is averaging 3.5 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.1 assists. ADVANTAGE - UCONN
BENCH
St. John's will bring 13 points and 6.4 rebounds off the bench. UConn will bring 10.6 points and 6.8 rebounds off the bench. However, this being said, I think our bench will see significant mintues in this game, and with additional minutes will come increased stats. ADVANTAGE - UCONN
INTANGIBLES
This game is a home game for the Johnnies...they will have the advantage of the home crowd's energy and maybe being home will give them more incentive and motivate them to exceed expectations however, the talent, athleticism, and team chemistry that UConn brings will more than negate any advantage the home floor provides St. John's. ADVANTAGE - UCONN
COACHING
I know, I know I sound like a broken record but, it is what it is... ADVANTAGE - UCONN
SCORE
UConn - 87
ST. John's - 45
MOV - 42
