6 St. John’s takeaways: How is defense ahead of the offense?

The trip began a dismal defeat, a game against Missouri St. John’s felt like it blew. It resulted in a third-place finish in the AdvoCare Invitational in Orlando. That wasn’t the goal, but leaving ESPN’s Wide World of Sports with two victories made for a quality weekend.

There were mostly positives, some negatives, and most of all progress. Below are six takeaways from the holiday tournament:

— Sure, the talent has increased, there are more defensive-minded players, but there is such an obvious difference so far on the defensive end between this year and Chris Mullin’s first two seasons. Adding quality defenders Marvin Clark Jr. and Justin Simon has contributed, but there’s a team-wide mind-set that clearly was established in the preseason, a desire to stop the opponent. The guards still gamble too much, and good big men will still be hard for this undersized team to deal with, but being a solid defensive team begins with effort, wanting to stop the man in front of you. St. John’s has that so far, as evidenced by its field-goal percentage defense (36 percent), turnovers forced (19.5 per game) and steals (9.2).

— St. John’s showed resilience in all three games, rallying from big deficits in the first two games and fighting off a poor showing Sunday to knock off Central Florida. The Red Storm were down 16 to Missouri and erased the entire deficit. They came from 10 down in the final 10 minutes to beat Oregon State. This is what good teams do — fight adversity, persevere in difficult times, find a gear the opponent doesn’t have. It wasn’t part of the package last year.

— One of the biggest positives from the trip from my point of view was the play of Kassoum Yakwe. This is the best the junior has looked since he was named to the all-league rookie team as a freshman. He made the biggest play in the win over Oregon State on Thursday, an acrobatic, one-handed follow slam to give St. John’s the lead for good. He gave Mullin quality minutes in all three games, grabbing six rebounds in Sunday’s win over Central Florida, and drew two charges. You can see his confidence building, and St. John’s will need the 6-foot-7 forward to continue to progress if it wants to be in the NCAA Tournament mix.

— The Johnnies have yet to hit their stride on offense. They struggled from the field in all three games, shooting no better than 42 percent in any of the three contests. Defense is carrying them, and who would’ve thought that would be the case a few weeks ago? Their strength is obviously on the perimeter, which will lend itself to a lower shooting percentage, but it’s also the result of the foul trouble Clark and Tariq Owens battled throughout the tournament. St. John’s needs the duo on the floor to have some semblance of balance and keep the opposition honest. Too frequently, the offense consisted of passing the ball around the perimeter until Shamorie Ponds, Marcus LoVett or Simon looked to create late in the shot clock, resulting in a long jump shot. That’s not a recipe for success.

— St. John’s is at a size disadvantage on the glass, a season-long trend that won’t go away. But against three far bigger teams it held its own, out-rebounding two of them, Oregon State and Central Florida, while getting beaten up on the boards by Missouri, 41-27. The key is everyone chipping in, and Simon and Ponds have already established themselves as key contributors on the glass, the duo combining to average 15.4 rebounds per game so far. This may not be the glaring weakness many predicted.

— Mullin is making strides. He diagrammed some nice sets out of timeouts. His team is clearly playing much harder, especially on the defensive end, which is always a good reflection on the coach. The zone offense needs work — St. John’s was handcuffed by a zone against Missouri and Central Florida — though some of that was merely poor shooting, and limited personnel due to foul trouble. My one issue was Mullin going with Bashir Ahmed over Clark down the stretch against Central Florida on Sunday before LoVett fouled out, when Clark was having his best game of the season and an out-of-control Ahmed was forcing the issue. But that’s nitpicking. Mullin has the Johnnies headed in the right direction, off to the exact start that was needed.