Niagara vs. St. John's: 3-Point Preview

A Red Storm Block Party

Say you go to a bar with a friend looking to pick up a girl. You go up to the girl, and say hello. Things seem like they're going well until all of a sudden your friend swoops in and blocks you from your ultimate goal of getting that girl's number.

That's basically St. John's and their opponents.

The Red Storm leads the Big East and are ranked 19th nationally in blocks, averaging 6.2 per game. Most of that is due to the 6' 10" center Chris Obekpa. He leads the team with four blocks per game. Sir'Dominic Porter is also chipping in, averaging 1.4 blocks per contest. Look for the St. John's to welcome Niagara to the "Red Storm Block Party" Tuesday night.

D'Angelo Harrison Closing in On Milestone

D'Angelo Harrison is only 10 points shy of eclipsing the 1,700 point mark in his career. The senior from Missouri City, TX will most likely hit this benchmark Tuesday night, as he is averaging 17.8 points per game through five games. In addition, Harrison is grabbing 9.2 rebounds per contest and has 11 assists on the year.

Harrison is currently 30 points behind Glen Williams for eighth place on St. John's all-time scoring list (1,721).

Room for Offensive Improvement

Sure, St. John's is 4-1 on the year. But coach Steve Lavin's squad is shooting only 42 percent on the season, which, well, isn't exactly high on any offensive rankings. In addition, they're only 26 of 77 from beyond the arc. The team is putting up points, averaging 75 points each game, but if the Red Storm start hitting more of their shots, their four-guard system could really take off on the offensive end of the court.

Free Throws

• This is the 99th meeting between Niagara and St. John's. They last met in 2007, when Niagara took down the Red Storm 77-73.
• St. John's will travel to face former Big East rival Syracuse following their match up with Niagara.
  
• Niagara has four players averaging double digits in scoring this season, with Rayvon Harris leading the way (11.3 PPG).