Game #34 - St. John's (Round of 32)

A lot on the line tonight: First team to win 30 games, A trip to the Sweet 16 and validation that we belong. I like that we are playing the early game so the ladies don't have to sit and wait and think. A win tonight puts us in Albuquerque vs. Baylor on Saturday.

St. John's is an upstart program in the Big East led by coach Kim Barnes Arico. It's there first appearance in the tournament since 1988 and they are looking to go to the Sweet 16 for the first time ever. They went 22-7 this year and the only common opponents we had were Monmouth, Wake Forest and Duke. They crushed both Monmouth and Wake, but were crushed by Duke.

Judging from their style on Sunday (ESPN2 didn't show much of the game, something about someone dunking was very important) they like to run the floor and play in a quick tempo. They are averging 71 points per game, while allowing 61. They shoot 43% from the floor and only 30% from behind the arc. They rebound well at nearly 41 per game, and keep their opponents to under 34. (Duke only outrebounded them by 12). Their opponents shoot nearly 40% from the floor and 31% from 3. The one thing I noticed is that they don't seem to foul much. they have 480 fouls this year and that's about 15 a game, but only 4 foul outs. SJU Stats

Looking at their roster, they are a very small team. Their tallest player is 6-2 Angel Tate and she rarely plays. After that they have two 6-1 players and one at 6-0. SJU Roster

Kia Wright is the team's best player. She got homesick and transfered from UConn. She averages 14.5 points per game, over 2 steals, 4.3 rebounds, 4 assists. She shoots 42% from the floor and 31% from 3. She has also taken 111 three-pointers. The next best player is Angela Clark who averages 14 ppg, 8.4 rpg and shots 55%. Danielle Chambers is another one of their rebounders grabbing nearly 9.1 a game. Tara Walker shoots nearly 40% from 3.

Keys to the Game

Come out firing on all cylindars like we did against Sacred Heart.

Establish post presence. A team with only 3 6-footers shouldn't come close to outrebounding us.

Control Wright and Clark. They are the only two weapons on the team. Shut them down and the game is ours.

Watch for foul trouble. SJU won it's opening round game by getting Cal's post players in foul trouble. The game changed when they didn't have trees in front of them.

Wright likes to drive to the hoop so Toliver and Newman must keep her in front and prevent her from penetrating.

End the game early. Our next game is Saturday hopefully so we need to rest the team as the next two will be spent traveling back to campus and then off to N.M.

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