{"id":40429,"date":"2025-11-15T10:55:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T10:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/40429\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T10:55:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T10:55:18","slug":"oziyah-sellers-is-the-best-st-johns-shooter-by-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/40429\/","title":{"rendered":"Oziyah Sellers is the best St. John\u2019s shooter ‘by far’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rick Pitino was at the forefront of the 3-point revolution, an outlier who instantly embraced the long-distance shot when it was first implemented in every NCAA conference (1986-87), leading Providence to its famous Cinderella run to the Final Four.<\/p>\n

The Hall of Fame coach has spent decades working with the nation\u2019s best shooters, winning his first national title with a Most Outstanding Player\/All-American (Tony Delk) who made more than 44 percent of his 3s.<\/p>\n

In St. John\u2019s senior Oziyah Sellers, Pitino sees someone unlike anyone he has ever coached.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s our best shooter by far,\u201d Pitino said Friday. \u201cHis numbers are scary in player development sessions. They\u2019re the best I\u2019ve seen since I\u2019ve been a coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, Pitino wants Sellers to show the world.<\/p>\n

Last season at Stanford, Sellers averaged 13.7 points, shooting 40.1 percent on 4.2 3-point attempts per game. <\/p>\n

\"OziyahOziyah Sellers attempts a shot during the St. John\u2019s loss to Alabama on Nov. 8. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

In limited minutes at USC the previous season, the guard made 42.9 percent from deep.<\/p>\n

In the Red Storm\u2019s first two games this season, Sellers has taken a total of three 3-pointers, missing them all.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t take enough 3s,\u201d Pitino said. \u201cPart of it is the other team saying, \u2018We can\u2019t let this guy shoot 3s,\u2019 but he passed up about three or four open 3s in the [loss to Alabama] and he can\u2019t pass them up. It hurts us as a basketball team.<\/p>\n

\"St.Oziyah Sellers prepares to take a shot during the St. John\u2019s practice Nov. 7. Charles Wenzelberg<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think he\u2019s getting adjusted to a different style. I think he\u2019ll get it because he\u2019s a highly intelligent young man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Point guard Dylan Darling will suit up for Saturday\u2019s game against William & Mary at Carnesecca Arena after sitting out last weekend\u2019s loss with a strained calf.<\/p>\n

Darling led the team with six assists \u2014 plus three steals \u2014 in 17 minutes of play in the season-opening win over Quinnipiac.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s ready to go,\u201d Pitino said. \u201cWe\u2019re at full force.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daniss Jenkins spent two seasons playing under Pitino, following the coach from Iona to St. John\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tYour weekly dispatch from the No. 1 source on the Johnnies\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside St. John’s by Zach Braziller, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Now, he is carving out a key role for the top team in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

After appearing in just seven games (3.3 minutes per game) with the Detroit Pistons as a rookie, Jenkins \u2014 who has made one appearance since Oct. 29 \u2014 opened this week by putting up 24 points, eight rebounds and four steals in an overtime win against the Wizards. <\/p>\n

Jenkins, 24, then played 40 minutes in Wednesday\u2019s win against the Bulls, finishing with 18 points and 12 assists in his first career start.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s awesome,\u201d Pitino said. \u201cYou just love to see it. Two games in a row, he\u2019s getting his opportunities. We\u2019re all very proud of Daniss Jenkins.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rick Pitino was at the forefront of the 3-point revolution, an outlier who instantly embraced the long-distance shot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3361,9,11,10,3362,319,3363],"class_list":{"0":"post-40429","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-college-basketball","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-rick-pitino","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-st-johns-red-storm"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40429","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=40429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}