St. John’s, Ohio State to Get to Point Quickly

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. â€”  Hey, any game in which a “Scoonie” squares off against a “Bootsy” can’t be all bad.

Ohio State (26-8) and St. John’s (28-8) play today at Thompson-Boling Arena for the South Regional championship, the winner advancing to next weekend’s Final Four.

To get through the gates of St. Petersburg, Fla., one of these schools is going to have to get past the guards.

Ohio State and St. John’s have reached the Elite Eight because of superb backcourt play. The Buckeyes offer Scoonie Penn and Michael Redd, who average a combined 36.5 points a game--more than the entire Wisconsin basketball squad scores in some games.

Penn, the junior transfer from Boston College, is tournament-tested tough, this being his third NCAA run at his second school. He was heroic down the stretch in Thursday’s win over Auburn, finishing with 26 points while playing the last 10 minutes with four fouls.

Redd, a sophomore from Columbus, had 22 points.

The Red Storm counters with point guard Erick Barkley, a cock-sure freshman who had 24 points and nine assists in Thursday’s victory over Maryland, and shooting guard Bootsy Thornton, who had 17 points.

If you count 6 feet 7 Ron Artest, a small forward who plays more like a guard, handling the point at times, St. John’s three-headed backcourt monster averages 42.9 points.

Today’s marquee matchup will be at the point, Penn versus Barkley.

Both are, uh-hum, extremely confident players.

Barkley ran Maryland guard Terrell Stokes silly, claiming afterward he could beat Stokes any time he wanted. No brag, just fact.

“Stokes gave me the opportunity to get past him,” Barkley said Friday. “If Scoonie plays me the same way, hopefully the same outcome will happen.”

Penn says he relishes the challenge.

“It’s another tough matchup for myself, but a good one,” Penn said. “It’s going to be fun to watch.”

Penn looks to score more than Barkley, but Barkley has the better assists-to-turnovers ratio.

“I’ve been watching him since he was at B.C.,” Barkley said of Penn. “I think the thing that stuck with me was his name, Scoonie Penn.”

Barkley had better stick with Penn today.

While St. John’s has mesmerized tournament opponents with a zone defense--holding them to 33.9% shooting--Penn and Redd become even more important factors for Ohio State.

“We have to try and create within the zone,” Redd said. “We’ve got to hit our three-point shots.”

St. John’s players weren’t too thrilled at first when Coach Mike Jarvis unveiled his zone, most preferring man-to-man.

“If looks could kill, they all would have killed me,” Jarvis said.

With St. John’s one victory away from the Final Four, though, no one is complaining now.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

How They Compare

*--*

SJU OSU Record 28-8 26-8 Avg. Pts. 79.2 75.3 Opp. Avg. Pts. 65.1 64.6 Margin 14.1 10.7 Field goal % .461 .469 Opp. FG Pct. .412 .402 3-Pt. FG Pct. .356 .357 Opp. 3-Pt. FG Pct. .298 .333 3-Pt. FG-Game 6.1 6.1 Opp. 3-Pt. FG-Game 5.4 6.7 Free throw % .683 .613 Rebound Margin 5.7 2.6 Turnover Diff. 3.4 3.6 Avg. Steals 9.9 8.4 Avg. Blocks 3.4 3.9

*--*