Pitino "Saw a lot of really good things" In Exhibition With Michigan

 

Photo by Jason Schott.

Saturday night at Madison Square Garden was a possible March Madness preview, with No. 5 St. John's taking on No. 7 Michigan, and it was the Wolverines who won it in overtime, 96-94.

Zuby Ejiofor, the Big East Preseason Player of the Year, picked up where he left off as he led St. John's with 25 points on 6-12 from the field, and drained 12 out of 13 from the free throw line, with six assists, six rebounds, and three steals.

Joson Sanon had 14 points (4-7 FG) and a steal in 15 minutes of action.Bryce Hopkins just missed out on a double-double, as he had 13 points (3-11 FG, 7-9 FT) and nine rebounds, with an assist.

Dillon Mitchell also poured in 13 points (5-10 FG) and eight rebounds. Lefteris Liotopoulos, the last player to enter the game for the Red Storm, also notched 13 points (3-6 FG), and he drained a pair of three-pointers, with six rebounds and two assists in 14:03 of action.

Michigan was led by Yaxel Lendeborg, who had 25 points on 10-15 from the field, including 2-4 from behind the arc, and 10 rebounds to give him a double-double.

PITINO POSTGAME: St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino addressed the media after the game, and he opened with this statement: "I don't think it gets any better than that for an exhibition game. It was a wonderful game with a great crowd, and for us, it was much needed. We have eight new players and we need to identify our weaknesses and the areas where we have to improve. I was really pleased with the grit we showed, coming back multiple times."

On what he learned from the exhibition: "These guys are great, but they're not together defensively yet because they don't know each other. We've got to figure it out in a hurry, but we'll make our corrections. This will be a fun team to coach."

On team mentality: "They're definitely playing for the name on the front. They're great guys and this was a wonderful exhibition game. You'd like to win but sometimes losing helps you understand where you need to improve. The weaknesses come from having eight new guys who just aren't used to playing together yet, but I saw a lot of really good things.