What's next for the Friars after their comeback fell short in MSG?

Billy Ricci is back with his latest -- on the Friars coming up just short at Madison Square Garden and awaiting a big test in Creighton

Photo courtesy of Carl Rizzo

Friar Family,

Going into Saturday’s matinee against the Red Storm, many counted our beloved Friars out — Vegas included. I don’t typically follow betting lines, but +13.5 seemed almost disrespectful. Now, St. John’s did just embarrass Georgetown into only scoring 41 points less than a week ago, but the Friars were looking like a formidable opponent in the past three games for any Big East team.

To the Friars’ credit, they hung in during a low scoring start to the game. St. John’s loves to defend, but the Friar bench was able to stabilize some early struggles scoring-wise from the starting five.

We’ve known one thing when it comes to Jabri Abdur-Rahim this season, Friar Fam: when he enters the game he is not afraid to shoot it from deep. And on Saturday the threes not only went in at a 72% clip on 11 attempts, but each contested long range three that went down gave the Friars hope, even as things got murky midway through the second half.

With Jayden Pierre and Bensley Joseph struggling, it was really Abdur-Rahim and Christ Essandoko that kept the Friars from staying down 19 with nine minutes to go. Bench points haven’t been a new X-factor for the Friars, it has been a key to their success in righting the ship in recent games. As Ryan Mela has taken a step back recently and Wesley Cardet has been out, this has really opened the door for Rich Barron, Justyn Fernandez, and Abdur-Rahim to emerge.

Next to Jalen Lindsey’s 30 point day at the Garden in 2017, Abdur-Rahim’s performance on Saturday was the best shooting performance by a Friar I can remember in a long time. It almost seemed like the more difficult the three was, the more likely it was going to go down at the World’s Most Famous Arena for #3. His high release and follow through are no doubt pretty. But what was most impressive was his ability to get his feet set well beyond the three-point line with a hand in his face.

Without Abdur-Rahim in the last three games, it's safe to say, Friartown, we could be looking at 0-3 in that stretch. And this is after many, including myself, questioned why he would come in and immediately take a three off one dribble or off balance to start his time in the rotation. Abdur-Rahim’s ability to get his feet set on Saturday showed it didn’t matter how many dribbles or steps he needed to take — because shooters shoot in big moments.

I do want to show some love to Christ Essandoko as well. Even though he had a big turnover with 1:31 to go and was slow to guard RJ Luis on the jumper that pushed the Johnnies up 66 to 63 with 38 seconds to go, for the most part, he was very solid for the Friars on Saturday: 4-5 from the field, a pair of blocks and big minutes with Oswin Erhunmwunse sidelined with foul trouble. It was exactly what we have been looking for in a backup big.

Still, PC came up short after a Kadary Richmond mid-range jumper that looked almost certain to go down. Richmond showed why he is still one of the best guards in the Big East. Credit to Kim English and staff on the defensive scout, as most Johnnies outside of Richmond and Luis failed to get it going on Saturday.

Where do we go from here, Friar Fam? Wednesday brings a huge game against Creighton on Wednesday night to stay in the hunt and get back to .500 in Big East play — and to ensure they don’t dip below .500 overall on the season. Ryan Kalkbrenner may be playing the best basketball of his college career right now, and that is saying something.

The way this team continues to fight has been admirable, and the team they are right now can still compete with the best of the Big East. We’ll see if they can get over the hump in more close games over the final month of the season.