Villanova visits SJU & Garden

DON’T CALL it a must-win. No January game is that critical to a team’s season.

However St. John’s Saturday meeting with No. 8 Villanova at the Garden has a feel that approaches that. A season that began with talk about a lot of winning and an NCAA Tournament run now sees the Red Storm at 9-5 with an 0-2 mark in the Big East. The Johnnies are starting to feel some pressure to get a win.

“We’re in last place in the league,” Sir’Dominic Pointer said. “There’s a sense of urgency. We have to get a win. . . . We definitely know we can’t stay at the bottom. We got to make our way to the top.”

“I feel like we haven’t been playing to the caliber we should be at,” Phil Greene said.

The Wildcats (14-1, 3-0) have some experience and are blossoming. Their only loss was at No. 2 Syracuse, and they already own wins over No. 18 Kansas and No. 20 Iowa. Villanova shrugged off Seton Hall on Wednesday in a 16-point win and made more than 50% of its shots for a third straight game.

The ’Cats are led by New York product JayVaughn Pinkston, a junior from Bishop Loughlin High in Brooklyn who is averaging 16.1 points.

Storm coach Steve Lavin tried to shake his team up by scrambling the starting lineup a week ago at Georgetown — including starting walk-on Khadim Ndaiye — but didn’t get the desired result as the Johnnies were blown out. On Thursday he got the inevitable starting lineup question but said one wasnot set.

The lineup change may have been directed at second-leading scorer and top rebounder JaKarr Sampson, who did not start for the first time in his career. Speaking generally, Lavin said, “it’s a privilege, not a right, to play college basketball. You have to earn it every day through your approach. The kids know, as always, that you earn it with what you do on a daily basis in practice."

D’Angelo Harrison said Sampson had been “a monster” at practice the past week.