St. John's has done the easy part. Now comes the part that actually tells us something. After two games against Monmouth and Iona, the Red Storm have already shown that their second unit can swing from quiet to useful in a hurry — and Wednesday night against Colgate is another chance to see whether that was a one-off burst or something more dependable.
This is not yet the brutal part of the schedule. St. John's has not been asked to survive fierce competition in its first two games, and that matters. The real test is coming later, after Colgate, when Syracuse arrives at Madison Square Garden on Sunday evening. But if you are Rick Pitino, you still want answers now. You want to know which reserves can be trusted when the games start to tighten up.
The bench already made its point once
The opener against Monmouth was functional enough, but hardly eye-catching. St. John's bench combined for 15 points in that game, which is fine if you are collecting early-season wins and not much else. Against Iona, though, the second unit exploded for 39 points. That is not a small uptick. That is a bench making itself impossible to ignore.
Quinn Ellis was a major reason why. He scored 24 points and shot 4-of-6 from 3-point range, which is exactly the sort of clean, aggressive production that changes the mood around a rotation. When a reserve guard is making shots that quickly and that efficiently, it forces a coach to think twice about how he wants to use his lineups.
That is why Wednesday matters. St. John's is now 2-0, Colgate is 0-2, and the Red Storm will host the game at 7:00 p.m. ET on Peacock. On paper, this is the sort of matchup where the deeper roster should keep looking sharp. But the point is not just to win. The point is to find out whether the bench can back up the promise it flashed against Iona.
Pitino wants growth, not just noise
Rick Pitino did not sound like a coach desperate to invent a problem after the Iona win. He praised his players on Sunday and said they are great guys to coach, players who want to get better, learn and grow. He also said they work really hard in practice. That is all well and good, but the real measure is whether that attitude keeps showing up when the opposition changes and the night becomes less comfortable.
There is something encouraging about a team whose reserves can jump from 15 bench points in one game to 39 in the next. There is also something dangerous about reading too much into two games that have not yet brought real pressure. St. John's can afford a little optimism right now. What it cannot afford is to mistake early production for proof.
So Wednesday night is less about the final score than about the pattern. If the second unit looks lively again, the Red Storm will head toward Syracuse with a little more confidence and a little more clarity. If it goes flat, then the conversation changes quickly. In other words: this is another useful test, and St. John's should be expected to pass it.
