Perhaps Zuby Ejiofor has begun to seek out his sport.
That’s the hope after the large man lastly awakened within the second half of No. 22 St. John’s 66-45 win over Wagner at Carnesecca Area.
Benched firstly for Vince Iwuchukwu, the 6-foot-9 Ejiofor got here alive late with all eight of his factors, three rebounds, a blocked shot and a steal in 17 second-half minutes.
“The last couple games have not met the expectations of myself and the coaching staff. I haven’t been playing with a lot of energy and we’re still trying to figure that out,” Ejiofor stated. “The second half I believed we performed quite a bit higher, myself included.
“I’ve had talks with the coaching staff. I felt like today was a good stepping stone as far as bringing energy and doing what I’m capable of doing.”
One among two St. John’s co-captains, Ejiofor entered the season with a brand new position as a junior. He not often performed as a freshman at Kansas and was Joel Soriano’s backup final season. This 12 months, he’s anticipated to be the man at middle for the Johnnies.
“He’s never been a mainstay player at Kansas or here, and he’s got to get used to it,” coach Rick Pitino stated. “They’re going to come after him.”
Pitino didn’t begin two of his finest gamers, Kadary Richmond and RJ Luis, as a result of he needed to get a take a look at another gamers forward of a difficult stretch of video games that begins Sunday towards New Mexico on the Backyard. As a substitute, Brady Dunlap and Aaron Scott began of their place.
“I know Kadary’s ready to play, I know RJ’s ready to play. I wanted to see some other lineups,” Pitino stated. “[Kadary will] start probably every single game the rest of the season. I wanted to experiment a little bit, see certain things.”
Pitino is hoping the sport towards New Mexico and his son, Richard, attracts as much as 15,000. However to date, a quantity that top is unlikely.
“I hope the people get in and see this game, because we’re going to need them,” he stated. “We need to get the subway alumni back. We’ve got great fans, but we don’t have a lot of them.”
