St. John's Preview: Red Storm Will Be Cal's Toughest Test Yet

Cal is in the championship round of the Legends Classic and is the only one of the four teams with a loss. The Bears (1-1) face St. John’s (3-0) Monday night in Brooklyn. In the other semifinal VCU (3-0) takes on Temple (4-0). The winners face off Tuesday for the championship after the losers contest the consolation game.

St. John’s has wins over Loyola Maryland, 76-55, Bowling Green, 84-80, and Rutgers, 84-65, and is clearly the strongest opponent the Bears have faced to date.

Former Golden State Warrior great and St. John’s alum Chris Mullin is in his fourth year as head coach and this team looks like his best chance to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time. Once almost automatic NCAA participants, the Red Storm have not reached the tourney since 2015, the season before Mullin took over..

But this year he has the horses. Key among them is junior Shamorie Ponds, who had initially declared for the NBA draft last spring but withdrew and decided to return to St. John’s, much to Mullin’s relief.. He averaged 21.6 points per game a year ago.

“He gets a lot of points in transition, he is very good in transition,” Cal head coach Wyking Jones said in a telephone interview. “In the halfcourt they’ll post him up a little bit. He’s just one of those guys that finds ways to score.”

Against Rutgers Ponds managed just eight points, but he did dish out six assists, and helped get his teammates points in other ways that do not show up in the box score, creating confusion in the defense that led to a pass that led to a score.

Mustapha Heron, a transfer from Auburn, had 27 points against Rutgers and is leading the Red Storm with a 22.7 points per game average.

“He’s tough, physical, he shoots the three (8-for-14), they post him up,” Jones said. “He is a very good finisher around the rim.”

The Red Storm is holding opponents to 66.7 points per game has 28 steals and has benefitted from 58 turnovers, most of them caused by the St, John’s defense.

“They are very aggressive on defense,” Jones said. “They deny the lanes, they really have active hands. They are going to pressure the ball. Against Rutgers they pressed more than they did in the first couple of games. They look to speed you up, they look to pressure you. They’re a tough team. They’re physical.

“They don’t zone much at all. They’ll switch one through five, they are all pretty much the same size,”

And size is an issue. Sedee Keita, at 6-9, was the tallest player in the regular rotation going into the season. But he had knee surgery after the second game and is out four to six weeks.

Senior forward Marvin Clark II (6-7) is the tallest among the St. John’s starters.

“They make up for the lack of size by being a very good scoring team,” Jones said. “(LJ) Figueroa, who is not a primary scorer for them, hit six threes against Rutgers. When you are talking about Ponds, Heron and Clark you are talking about a very good scoring team. And now that Figueroa is starting to score more they are very dangerous on the offensive end. So they make up for not having a lot of size with their ability to score.”

Figueroa is a transfer from Odessa JC in Texas. ''Playing with my great teammates, it makes the game a lot easier,'' Figueroa told the Associated Press after the Rutgers game. ''Playing with great players like Mustapha, Shamorie, Marv, , everybody on the team it shows our potential and what we can do, so the transition (from JC) wasn't hard at all.''

Mullin has just a 38-63 record as head coach. As revered as he is at the school, he will have probably have to do a lot worse to lose his job. And this team seems poised for a turnaround.

Notes: This will be the first meeting between Cal and St. John’s…. St. John’s matched a single-game program record by sinking 16 threes against Rutgers. … It was the third time they hit that mark. ...As a team, the Red Storm registered a 1.8 assist-to-turnover ratio and forced 17.0 turnovers per game.  ...St. John’s has three players in the top fivein the Big East conference assist-to-turnover ratio standings. Figueroa (4.5) ranks second, Ponds (2.6) is third and junior guard Justin Simon (2.2) is fifth.

A quick look at the other two Legends Classic semifinalists

Temple

Head coach Fran Dunphy is retiring after this season, his 30th as a head coach and 13th at Temple. He has taken the Owls to seven NCAA Tournament berths, and has the talent to make it eight.

Senior point guard Shizz Alston, Jr., is averaging 21.5 points per game and, although he occasionally gets lost on defense, has become an accomplished facilitator, with 22 assists/ Backcourt mate Quentin Rose averages 16.3, while 6-10 center Ernest Aflakpui hauls down 7.5 rebounds per game.

Temple's 4-0 start is its best since the 2012-13 team won its first six games. The Owls have scored 81 points in the last two games.

VCU

Guard Marcus Evans, a transfer from Rice where averaged 20.1 points per game, averages 11.3 points per game, one of only Rams scoring in double figures.

VCU defeated Bowling Green 72-61 last time out on Nov. 12. The Rams forced 27 turnovers -- their most since the 2015-16 season -- and led by as many as 25 in the second half. The Rams have held three consecutive opponents to 61 points or fewer for the first time since December, 2014. The Rams held an opponent under 60 just once  last season. VCU has produced 63 turnovers.

Both Cal and VCU have defeated Hampton, VCU won their match-up 69-57, Cal prevailed, 80-66.