Either the beds in the Affinia Dumont, where St. John’s stayed Friday night, are the most comfortable in all of Manhattan or the hotel’s automated wake-up call system failed miserably Saturday morning.
St. John’s played as if it never had shown up for an 11 a.m. Garden tipoff against No. 19 Georgetown and the result was a 67-51 loss to a team coming off a 28-point home blowout and without one of its stars, Greg Whittington, who has been suspended for violation of team rules.
“They came out like hungry dogs,’’ St. John’s forward Amir Garrett said.
There is lot we don’t know about this St. John’s program under coach Steve Lavin. It’s the byproduct of Lavin having missed most of last season recovering from prostate cancer surgery.
We did not know, until yesterday, that Lavin doesn’t believe in sending a message by clearing the bench when his team is sleepwalking through a game at the World’s Most Famous Arena. Even in the final minute, when the game had been decided for 30-plus minutes, Lavin never sent in the walk-ons.
“He’s not that type of coach,’’ said forward Amir Garrett. “He doesn’t really get mad at us like that. We just got to learn from this and move on.’’
Lavin knows he has a young team — all freshmen and sophomores. He said on Friday that because of his absence last season, he still is learning the players and personalities, still evaluating lineups and combinations.
He switched three-fifths of his starting lineup at halftime, benching point guard Phil Greene IV, forward JaKarr Sampson and Garrett in favor of point guard Jamal Branch, swingman Sir’Dominic Pointer and guard Felix Balamou. That didn’t work.
So now we get to see how Lavin handles the first adversity with his players. He made some terrific moves with Norm Roberts’ roster two years ago, turning Dwight Hardy and Sean Evans into Big East stars.
Starting with Tuesday night’s home game against Notre Dame, he must show he can do what John Thompson III did yesterday. The shorthanded Hoyas (11-3, 1-2 Big East) responded from their worst home loss since 1971 with a textbook road win:
The Hoyas got out early, they outscored the Red Storm 32-22 in the paint, outrebounded them 48-33, and threw a blanket over D’Angelo Harrison (3-of-12 shooting, 0-for-5 on 3-pointers). Otto Porter Jr. led the way with a 19-point, 14-rebound performance.
Every time Harrison came off a pick, a second Georgetown defender jumped him. It’s a blueprint other Big East teams are sure to follow, so Lavin will have to have a counter in place.
St. John’s (9-7, 1-3) is in a slide, having lost four of five.
The Johnnies are setting back free-throw shooting a couple of decades. They entered Saturday’s game 312th out of 345 teams nationally. Then they clanged 6-of-16 freebies off the rim, forcing Knicks personnel to disinfect both baskets.
“We’re not going to come out a second game like this,’’ Garrett said. “Trust me.’’
We shall see. Lavin is learning about his team and we are learning about him.
***
* Harrison had his stark of 29 games in double figures snapped. He finished with seven. Chris Obekpa broke Walter Berry’s single-season blocked shots record of 76. Obekpa has 82.