Rick Pitino often issues reminders about how this version of St. John’s is not like the team who won the Big East and 31 games last season.
The Red Storm hope they can start going on a run like last year’s team, and their next chance is Tuesday when they visit Butler in Indianapolis.
Although they lost four starters from last season, St. John’s (9-5, 2-1 Big East) was ranked No. 5 in the preseason AP poll but quickly fell by losing three games to SEC teams and another to Iowa State.
The Red Storm won their first two conference games before Saturday’s 77-71 home loss to Providence. St. John’s scored the game’s first 13 points and held a pair of 10-point leads in the second half but got outscored 25-9 over the final 7:52.
“We’re going to lose games. We shouldn’t have lost (Saturday), but we’re going to lose games,” Pitino said. “This is not last year’s team. I said it all along: We have high hopes. But what I’m noticing right now is a team that has a lot of frailties.”
Zuby Ejiofor tied a career high with 33 points to go along with a career-best 15 rebounds. He also committed a career-worst seven turnovers and missed nine of his career-high 23 free attempts.
Ejiofor had little help from some of the players whom Pitino added in the transfer portal as the Red Storm missed 24 of 31 3-point attempts and 16 of 22 layups.
Joson Sanon shot 1-of-12 and is 9-of-36 (25%) over his past four games. Bryce Hopkins was 3-of-13 and is shooting 37.5% over his past eight since a 26-point showing against Baylor on Nov. 25.
Butler (10-5, 1-3) opened its conference schedule with a 113-110 double-overtime win over Providence on Dec. 13 but struggled against UConn and Villanova while taking a four-point loss at Creighton.
In Saturday’s 85-67 home loss to Villanova, Butler was outscored 55-34 in the second half by shooting 35.3% and missing 14 of 17 3s.
Butler also allowed Villanova to shoot 70.4% in the second half and 55.2% overall. It was the second-highest percentage against Butler this season and third time the Bulldogs conceded at least 50% from the field.
“We didn’t come out with any fire,” Butler’s Finley Bizjack said. “They came out on a run, and we had to burn a timeout. That’s something that kills you; we’ve got to play harder.”
Bizjack scored 18 and is shooting 16-of-56 (28.6%) over his past five games. Michael Ajayi added 12 and 12 rebounds for his fourth straight double-double and 12th overall.
