On Wednesday, St. John’s kicked off their season in fine fashion with a 109-79 win over the Mercer Bears. It was a good start for St. John’s and new coach Mike Anderson as the Red Storm built a lead early on and essentially work from there.

Mustapha Heron had a 25 point night and LJ Figueroa posted an 18 game to give the Johnnies a good deal of scoring, they also had a lot of pop from the bench with 29 points coming off the bench from the play of David Caraher and Marcellus Earlington. One point of concern though from this game was the fact that St. John’s might be limited in size and that Mercer did get back into the game in the second half with a much better showing on the floor to finish the game with 79 points. The Bears where never really going to fully get back into the game but they made a good effort of things to give St. John’s a slight scare and things to think about going forward.

Onto the next game though as St. John’s plays host to Central Connecticut on Saturday. This will be the third time in programs histories and that both schools will be facing each other. St. John’s has won the first two meetings in 1990 and 2017.

The Blue Devils will be coming into this one fresh off a loss midweek to the Hartford Hawks by a score of 79 to 59. Greg Outlaw and Jamir Reed scored the bulk of Central Connecticut’s points in this one with both having 13 point nights against the Hawks.

All things considered this will most likely not be a season to remember for the Blue Devils who according to Ken Pom are projected to go 6-24 this season.

It would be quite an upset if St. John’s were to lose this one, but expect a Red Storm win and the continuation of the Johnnies to work on and improve their style of play under Mike Anderson. Essentially using this game and the next few games as trial runs to work out the kinks in the system.

Heron and Figueroa will most likely lead the way in scoring again, but expect the continuation from last game of Anderson using the roster to its full capacity something the Red Storm fans must feel like is a breath of fresh air after Mullins limited rotation and roster usage in games. Basically we are in the see what works and what can be improved or tried out phase.

It should be a easy breezy cover girl kind of game but we are slowly seeing some exciting things as Mike Anderson continues to unfold his playing style with this team. As for the Blue Devils hopefully it is a much better day out than against Hartford.

How to Watch

Time: 4:00 pm ET

TV: FS2

Stream: Fox Sports Go (where available)