The weight of memory, of a losing streak, is hard to toss off. And with a top-10 team coming in (and Duke on the horizon), there will be no easy days for St. John’s, working to get out of the doldrums.
In truth, there are many opportunities to crack as badly as the Johnnies did on Saturday in Indianapolis, a thrashing by Butler (early and often) that saw the team try to jump-shot their way out of their slide.
Shamorie Ponds played hurt, Kassoum Yakwe skipped the game hurt, and the rest of the players, save maybe one, took a collection of bad shots to pass the time.