found a way to win that game<\/a>.<\/p>\nSaturday night, they lost, but there were reasons to be encouraged by the 96-94 overtime setback to Michigan at the Garden.<\/p>\n
There was progress \u2014 in the Johnnies\u2019 fight, their ability to rally several times from deficits and the overall play of their frontcourt.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw a lot of really good things,\u201d coach Rick Pitino said afterward. \u201cBut I think the weakness is just eight new guys [getting used to] playing together. Great game \u2014 great game.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was an entertaining exhibition between a pair of preseason Top 10 teams that feature two of the best forwards in the country, Zuby Ejiofor for St. John\u2019s and Yaxel Lendeborg for Michigan. <\/p>\n
Dylan Darling scores while drawing a foul during the second half of St. John\u2019s 96-94 preseason loss to Michigan on Oct. 25, 2025 at Madison Square Garden. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
They each played well, combining for 49 points. St. John\u2019s forwards Bryce Hopkins and Dillon Mitchell also had plenty of strong moments, each scoring 13 points, and point guard Dylan Darling (seven points, two assists) rebounded from his shaky outing against Towson.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Michigan was better on the glass, outrebounding St. John\u2019s by 12, and shot 52.2 percent from the field, compared to 39.7 for St. John\u2019s. <\/p>\n
Pitino harped on needing his guards to rebound and defend better, while praising the play of his active frontcourt.<\/p>\n
Zuby Ejiofor looks to make a move on Aday Mara during St. John\u2019s preseason home loss to Michigan. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t help that the two starting Johnnies guards, Oziyah Sellers and Joson Sanon (14 points), fouled out and saw limited minutes as a result. Michigan coach Dusty May felt that was the difference in the game.<\/p>\n
The Red Storm trailed by eight early in the extra session, until Lefteris Liotopoulos caught fire, scoring eight consecutive points. The sophomore had a chance to give them the lead with 8.4 seconds left, but missed two of three free throws.<\/p>\n
Bryce Hopkins shoots and scores during St. John\u2019s home preseason win over Michigan. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
Pitino and Ejiofor were more concerned with the fact that the Johnnies have been outrebounded in both exhibition games, and with so many new players, aren\u2019t as connected as they would like. <\/p>\n
The defense did force 22 turnovers, but allowed 54 points in the paint to the mammoth Wolverines, who have two 7-footers in Morez Johnson Jr. and Aday Mara.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to get back to that defensive mindset we had last year,\u201d said Ejiofor, who finished with 24 points, six rebounds, six assists and three steals. \u201cIt\u2019s going to take time, but we\u2019re going to figure it out.<\/p>\n
Head coach Rick Pitino shouts out instructions during St. John\u2019s preseason home loss to Michigan. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no excuses. Winning is the standard that we\u2019re trying to build here at St. John\u2019s. Everybody came here to win, all the transfers came here to win. Just be better and learn from it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several times, Pitino raved about the experience of facing an elite opponent at the Garden, because of what he and his players learned from the defeat. He put together a difficult nonconference schedule and this contest will better prepare St. John\u2019s for that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be ready for Quinnipiac. I don\u2019t know if we\u2019re ready for Alabama or Kentucky, Ole Miss and the Las Vegas trip,\u201d the Hall of Fame coach said. \u201cBut we\u2019ll get it done. A lot of people are in the same boat we\u2019re in with new players. I set the schedule tough because I need to know [where we have to get better].<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we played a [lesser] team, and we won the game easily, we don\u2019t know what our weaknesses are. So I wanted to find out, and I found out tonight what our weaknesses are. It\u2019s a great teaching tool.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One week ago, St. John\u2019s struggled with mid-major opponent Towson. The Johnnies found a way to win that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3361,12023,9,56,63,65,64,3362,319,3363],"class_list":{"0":"post-17157","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-college-basketball","9":"tag-michigan-wolverines","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-ny","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-nyc-headlines","14":"tag-nyc-news","15":"tag-rick-pitino","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-st-johns-red-storm"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}