No. 24 St. John’s to visit Villanova with one of the Big East’s best players

St. John’s won only four Big East games last season and Villanova won the national championship. But the Red Storm dealt the Wildcats their only home defeat, last February at the Wells Fargo Center, with a major contribution from Shamorie Ponds, who scored 26 points and controlled the game for the better part of 40 minutes.

The Red Storm return Tuesday night, this time at the renovated Finneran Pavilion, to take on ‘Nova (11-4, 2-0 Big East), and Ponds is playing even better. He leads the conference in assists (6.0 per game) and steals (2.7), is second in assist-turnover ratio (2.9), and is third in scoring (20.4 points per game).

What’s better for St. John’s (14-1, 1-1), which entered the Associated Press poll this week for the first time at No. 24, is that Ponds’ supporting cast is much improved.

“He’s become more efficient as a scorer, but he’s also become a great distributor,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said after practice Monday. “In the past, you kind of knew he was going to get a shot off. Now he might get somebody else an easy shot. So it’s even more difficult to guard him.

“You almost have to make a decision sometimes on certain possessions to just let him get a shot here, don’t let somebody else get one. They’ve got great balance around him.”

Senior forward Eric Paschall said that Ponds, a 6-foot-1 junior who was the Big East’s preseason player of the year,, has become a better decision-maker who gets everyone involved, but that he’s also dangerous as a scorer as evidenced by his 37 points in an overtime win Saturday at Georgetown.

“It’s his change of speeds and how he shoots the ball, especially with his assists now,” Paschall said. “You can’t really attack him too much because he passes the ball so well .Everything he does on the court, he does a great job. He can shoot it well. He’s very dynamic.”

All five St. John’s starters score in double figures. Other than Ponds, the remaining four all are transfers brought in by coach Chris Mullin. Two transfers in their first season of competition, forward Mustapha Heron (Auburn) and swingman L.J. Figueroa (Odessa Junior College), combined to average 30 points and 12 rebounds.

“I’m sure Chris’ experience in the NBA has been really valuable in that way in finding a way to piece a team together,” Wright said. “There’s a talent to that. I don’t know if I have that. They’ve become a well-oiled unit. … They look like a team that’s been together for a long time. They play that way.”

The Wildcats almost coughed up all of a 20-point lead Saturday before defeating Providence, 65-59. Only 12 Big East games have been played, and Villanova is the only team that’s undefeated in league play.

Wright said the start of the conference season shows “it’s definitely going to be one of the most wide-open races we’ve had since the new Big East started.” But he had a favor to ask of the league hierarchy.

“Can we end the season right now?” he said, laughing. “Usually they say, ‘Could we be happy if we ended the season right now?’ and I’d say, ‘No, we’ve got a lot of basketball to play.’ But I’d take it right now.”