St. John’s in need of answers after overmatched loss to Kansas

While Julian Champagnie (left) and Posh Alexander (right) are giving St. John’s everything they have, Red Storm must get its supporting cast to improve as non-conference play winds down. (Photo by Vincent Dusovic/St. John’s University Athletics)

ELMONT, N.Y. — You’re always searching, searching for a feeling

But it’s easy come and easy go

I’m sorry, but it’s true

You’re bringing on the heartache, taking all the best of me

Oh, can’t you see?

— Def Leppard, “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak”

St. John’s fans have spent the better part of the past four weeks trying to make sense of the Red Storm as it has openly struggled through a non-conference schedule that has yielded more criticism than it has opportunities to solidify a NCAA Tournament resume that will now be heavily dependent on how the Johnnies fare in Big East play, which begins two weeks from Monday against Seton Hall.

First, there was the lethargic first half on the road against Indiana, then a scare from a hot-shooting St. Francis Brooklyn team six days later, followed by an overtime affair against NJIT in which St. John’s saw a 16-point lead fall by the wayside before prevailing in the extra session. Three games — four if you count a win over Fairleigh Dickinson that some may argue was much closer than it should have been — that should have been a kick in the pants for a team in need of one heading into Friday's battle with eighth-ranked Kansas ultimately did little to improve the situation on the corner of Union and Utopia.

Joel Soriano will go down as the answer to a trivia question after he christened UBS Arena with its first points scored, but after that, it was all Jayhawks, all night. A 13-0 run after the Soriano basket set the stage for a double-digit halftime lead that was trimmed to three points before Mike Anderson inexplicably lifted Julian Champagnie — largely responsible for the ill-fated Red Storm rally with a flurry of clutch shots — with 10:35 to play and the score 64-61 in favor of Kansas. When the junior superstar returned 63 seconds later, the damage had already been done, as a three-point deficit turned into eight in the midst of an eventual 11-0 Jayhawk run that greased the skids en route to a convincing 95-75 defeat that raised the question marks Anderson openly discussed before the season at Big East media day, and justifiably so.

“I thought the nerves were there,” Anderson reflected after the sluggish beginning to the opening stanza. “We were real tentative offensively, and Kansas is a veteran team that took advantage of that. I think once we got our bearings, I thought we started getting after them. You’ve got to come out and you’ve got to make shots. We had some looks, but we just didn’t make them.”

“(Kansas) came in and they did what they had to do. They were up 13 at the half, and I thought we took their best shot. We came out in the second half, I thought we came out with much better energy, I thought we got a little more physical.”

But did the quick hook for Champagnie, who made each of his first five 3-point attempts after halftime, alter the tenor of a game that looked for all the world like it would tilt toward St. John’s and its partisan crowd that packed the lower bowl of the New York Islanders’ new home?

“I don’t think it turned,” a defiant Anderson told Zach Braziller of the New York Post with regard to the apparent momentum shift while Champagnie was out. “He was tired. I think our inability — and I hadn’t even looked at the game — we missed some shots, we had some plays we didn’t make. They scored a couple of threes and we had some poor execution on defense.”

“(Ochai) Agbaji hit a three, they hit a couple of wide open threes, something that we had been covering. That’s what you can’t have, and the offensive rebounding. That problem was our Achilles. Again, guys, they scored 24 points on second shots. You can’t have that. You can’t let that take place.”

St. John’s fans have a similar grievance with the Red Storm’s schedule to this point, something Anderson addressed both tongue-in-cheek and contentiously following the near-upset against St. Francis Brooklyn before turning the page quickly. With only four chances left to right the ship before league play begins, patience is wearing thin as a season that appeared to be one in which the retooling after Chris Mullin’s resignation had finally turned the corner is now one that is headed to a crossroads as the Red Storm’s coach continues to look at the big picture.

“Our bench has got to get better,” Anderson assessed. “I think that’s the biggest key. You’ve got to score, you’ve got to be able to put the ball in the hole. This team is becoming a team, that’s what I’m talking about.”

St. John’s may be becoming a team, but consider this: A team lauded for its depth should not be searching for consistency among its supporting cast. Aside from Champagnie, Posh Alexander and Dylan Addae-Wusu, the Red Storm managed just 19 points on 7-of-26 shooting. Joel Soriano and Tareq Coburn, two of the five transfers brought in during the offseason, looked to be fish out of water for the most part on Friday, as has Aaron Wheeler for the past several games. Now with a short turnaround before Sunday night’s contest against Fordham, with deceptively strong tilts against quality mid-major foes in Monmouth and Colgate to follow, Anderson defended his mindset while at the same time admitting that this third iteration of Johnnies under his watch is not where he feels it needs to be.

“We’ll learn from it,” he bristled. “I think that’s what these games are for. What you’re seeing here is going to prepare us for the Big East. We just know we’re not there yet.”

If not now, when?