Rick Pitino knows St. John’s needs to feed ‘big dog’ Zuby Ejiofor more
ATLANTA — In St. John’s three consecutive wins, one offensive issue has arisen.
Not enough touches for star forward Zuby Ejiofor.
The senior has averaged just seven field goal attempts in those contests, and coach Rick Pitino felt it was particularly a problem in Tuesday’s conference-opening win over DePaul.
“I pointed this out: There were seven times in the last game that the guards should’ve passed the ball to Zuby in the low post and did not do it,” Pitino said Friday on WFAN. “Where [last year] Kadary [Richmond], RJ [Luis Jr.], Deivion [Smith] would’ve gotten the ball to Zuby right away, because they all knew if Zuby gets double-teamed they are going to get the ball back and if Zuby doesn’t get double-teamed, he’s going to score or get fouled.
“So we missed him in the last game. It’s new players not feeding the big dog enough. We talked about it, we showed them. I think they understand that.”
Ejiofor is attempting slightly fewer field goal attempts this year than last season, 8.2 to 8.6.
He is going to the free-throw line more and his assists are up, from 1.6 to a team-high 2.8.
In recent days, Pitino has raved about the improvements sophomore guard Joson Sanon has made as a defender and rebounder.
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On Friday, he took it a step further.
“I have to say, Joson is without question the most improved basketball player [on our team],” Pitino said of the Arizona State transfer. “He’s rebounding, he’s gone from being a bad defensive player to a very good defensive player. He wasn’t guarding anyone the first two weeks of the season.”
Sanon is coming off arguably his best game as a Johnnie, a 15-point, nine-rebound performance in a win over DePaul.
Sanon’s strength is on the offensive end, where he is averaging 10.6 points and shooting 43.2 percent from 3-point range on 3.7 attempts per game. But he has come along in other areas, too.
Kentucky center Jayden Quaintance is expected to make his debut Saturday. The Arizona State transfer is an elite rim protector. He underwent ACL surgery last March and will be on a minutes limit if he is in fact available.
