00:00This is Eye of the Storm, a St. John's video series presented by Noble.
00:05Now let's look at Duke, because when you look at Duke,
00:07this is a team that's one of the most talented teams that left in the field.
00:10They're one of the best teams in the country.
00:12What's the biggest challenge that they present to St. John's on both ends of the floor
00:16when you look at this Duke team?
00:18Yeah, it's a little similar to Cairns where they have, they're really big.
00:22You know, you go the center, I'm not even sure how to pronounce his name, 6'11.
00:26He's back. He came back from a foot injury, played 13 minutes the other day.
00:30You have Boozer at 6'9". You have Saar at 6'.
00:33Like, they have a really good positional size.
00:35Now, they don't block shots like Kansas.
00:37Now, Kansas was top-tended shot block percentage.
00:39They don't necessarily do that, but they still really protect the rim at a high level.
00:42They're number one in defensive efficiency.
00:44They're terrific defensively.
00:46Now, Caleb Foster, the point guard, has been out for three weeks.
00:50Now, they say there's an outside shot he's going to play.
00:52I'd be shocked.
00:53He had surgery repair, a fracture in his foot, like, two weeks ago.
00:56I think this is gamesmanship. I don't think he's going to play.
00:58He might be their best on-ball defender.
01:01So, that changes things.
01:02And now they go to Boozer's brother, Caden Boozer, who is a non-shooter but has played well.
01:08He had 19 against Siena.
01:10You know, Duke's a really good rebounding team.
01:13You know, they're going to be really tough.
01:15Now, the big thing to me is can St. John's continue to make threes?
01:19They're going to have to make threes.
01:20They've now hit 21-2 tournament games.
01:23They're most in back-to-back games all year.
01:25And, again, it's a very different opponent.
01:28But their one game at Capital One Arena, they hit a season-high 15th.
01:31Now, it's Georgetown, who doesn't play a lot of defense.
01:34Not the same as Duke.
01:35Not quite the same.
01:36But they do have, they do, but from a mental standpoint, that's probably helpful.
01:40Right.
01:40Because they've shot, they did shoot the ball really well there.
01:44But, yeah, I mean, look, Duke's really good.
01:46They're not, they're the number one overall seed.
01:50But without the point guard and with the center kind of not quite back, like 100%,
01:54they're not quite the same team.
01:56Look, Siena had them beat, had them down 13.
01:59TCU was, you know, led them going into the second half.
02:02And St. John's is obviously much better than both those teams.
02:04The spread's six and a half.
02:06Like, yes, St. John's is a significant underdog,
02:08but this isn't like David versus Goliath.
02:11Like, St. John's can play with them.
02:14You know, big factor here is defensive rebounding
02:16because Duke really hits the glass hard.
02:18St. John's has had issues defensive rebounding at times late in that,
02:22especially in non-conference games against big teams.
02:24Late in Kansas, they struggled defensive rebounding.
02:28Now, some of that was you had that one out-of-bounds play,
02:33but also I think they just kind of wore down.
02:35You know, so they played so hard.
02:39I just think they kind of ran out of gas a little at the end.
02:41But, yeah, defensive rebounds are going to be huge.
02:43And I think, you know, another thing I wrote about was I think Ruben Parade
02:47can have a big role in this game.
02:48You know, he's 6'11".
02:50He can shoot threes.
02:51He can defend on the perimeter.
02:53He's played really well lately.
02:54He had some really big minutes against Kansas.
02:58He played well against Northern Iowa.
03:00He played well in the Big East tournament.
03:02Like, he's played good.
03:04He's playing well.
03:04And he can score.
03:06You know, he's their biggest player.
03:07And he can score the ball, you know, on the interior.
03:11He can hit a three, space the floor.
03:13Like, I can see, you know, we've seen more of the Prey-Zuby lineups.
03:16And I can see even more of that.
03:19I think you look at Ruben Parade to play a minimum of 15 minutes.
03:21I think he's going to be on the court a lot.
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