St. John’s Joel Soriano vows better performance

Joel Soriano didn’t like what he saw of himself on film.

“Lack of energy, low motor, no intensity,” St. John’s center said. “No grit, no fight.”

Soriano has not been at his best of late and really struggled in Tuesday’s blowout loss at Seton Hall, managing just six points and four rebounds in 18 minutes along with a minus-31 rating.

“I am going to be better tomorrow,” the Johnnies’ leading scorer and rebounder promised. “I’m coming with a better mindset. … Just come out of the gate with a lot of energy, high intensity. Just be a dog, that’s one thing I want to see from myself tomorrow.”

Coach Rick Pitino, who wasn’t on the sideline for the game because of a bout with COVID-19, said he feels Soriano has received too much blame when things go wrong for St. John’s and too much credit when it does.

He was far from the only Johnnie to struggle against Seton Hall.

“I think Joel’s getting too much of this,” said Pitino, who will return on Saturday against No. 17 Marquette.

“I can look at [Chris] Ledlum and say it even more so than Joel. Ledlum’s got to bring it more, [Jordan] Dingle’s got to bring it more. Nahiem [Alleyne’s] got to do it. They all got to do it. My point being, Joel doesn’t deserve all the praise he’s been getting for all of his double-doubles, and he shouldn’t be getting [all the criticism] for the Seton Hall game. He didn’t play well, but everybody else didn’t play well.”

Pitino spent a good portion of the press conference harping on the need for all of his players to give the daily effort he sees from starting point guard Daniss Jenkins and reserve forward Zuby Ejiofor.

Those two are constants in how hard they play in practice and games.

“If they want to be a great basketball team down the road come March, then they all have to play like Daniss and Zuby,” Pitino said. “I don’t want Joel to take the brunt of our loss, because it was all of them.”

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St. John’s will be without Dingle due to COVID-19.

The graduate transfer from Penn, who missed the Seton Hall game, is still not feeling well.

Pitino said he is unsure if the guard will be back for Wednesday’s game against Villanova.

Assistant coaches Van Macon, Ricky Johns and Taliek Brown will also be out because of the virus.

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Sophomore Cruz Davis is back with the team, but St. John’s is planning to get a medical redshirt for the Iona transfer.

Davis suffered a broken left hand early in the season and it never fully recovered.

He still has numbness in his fingers on the left hand. Davis has only appeared in four games.