No sleep til Brooklyn!
On Sunday, the Boston College Eagles men’s basketball team takes a day trip down to Brooklyn to face St. John’s in the 2023 NABC Brooklyn Showcase. They will play in the third of four games that involve other schools like Miami (FL) and Colorado.
Who: St. John’s Red Storm (6-2) vs. Boston College Eagles (7-3)
When: Sunday December 10th at 4:30pm ET
Where: Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY
How to Watch: The game will be broadcasted on ESPNU
BC is riding a two-game winning streak coming into this game, but those wins have come against some pretty lousy competition in Holy Cross and Central Connecticut State. The Eagles had some struggles against Holy Cross in the first half of Friday night’s match-up, but they showed poise in the second half and scored an incredible 63 points in the game’s final 20 minutes to put away the Crusaders.
St. John’s is riding a four-game win streak themselves, including a win over Holy Cross, but also against fellow P6 teams like West Virginia and Utah. Red Storm head coach Rick Pitino is in his first year of taking over the St. John’s program and it’s not yet clear how he’s doing. This is a team that already went 18-15 last season and a program that hasn’t dipped below .500 since 2018, so expectations are that Pitino will take them from the middle of the pack to Big East glory.
The Red Storm have star senior center Joel Soriano leading the charge with his offensive production and presence in the paint. Soriano is up to 17+ points per game to start the season, up from the 15.2 last season. He’s also a very adept rebounder and shot blocker at 6’11” and 250lbs, so BC center Quinten Post is going to have his work cut out for him. Behind Soriano, St. John’s boasts a dynamic offense led by senior guards Daniss Jenkins and Jordan Dingle. While Jenkins has gotten off to a slow start this season, they have a proven track record of facilitating offense between themselves and throughout the team that features a lot of 3&D role players. It will be a tough task for Boston College to defend an offense that ranks 36th in the nation and can score efficiently in multiple ways.
Defensively, St. John’s is not as impressive, giving up three 80+ point games this season already and really struggling to defend three-pointers. BC will need a good game from beyond the arc, especially seeing as Quinten Post will likely have some trouble playing against a stalwart like Joel Soriano.
Prediction: St. John’s 79 Boston College 70