Huskers first test for Storm

St. John’s pair of seasonopening wins have shown that Chris Mullin’s third season as coach should be his best yet. Clearly, the Red Storm have their most talented team since D’Angelo Harrison and Sir’Dominic Pointer last shared the floor.

But two easy home wins over low-major opponents doesn’ t reveal much, and even St. John’s players are curious to get a real assessment of where the team is at, when it hosts Nebraska on Thursday night at Carnesecca Arena in the third annual Gavitt Tipoff Games.

“This is no doubt the test,” forward Marvin Clark said. “If we come out, play well, compete and get a win, it would put a lot of things into perspective for us as a team.”

In opening the season with two wins for the fourth straight year, the Red Storm (2-0) have demonstrated newfound explosiveness on both ends of the floor, with five players currently averaging double-digit points — St. John’s is shooting 41.2 percent on 3-pointers — and the team forcing 21 turnovers per game.

Though the Cornhuskers (2-0) don’t have the shooters to keep up — hitting just over 30 percent of 3-pointers and less than 40 percent from the field — they could cause trouble in their first visit to Queens with the biggest frontline the undersized Red Storm have seen this season — featuring 6-foot-8 Isaiah Roby, 6-foot-11 Jordy Tshimanga and 6-foot-9 Isaac Copeland.

Though St . John’s has ave ra ge d 33 rebounds through its first two games, Nebraska is averaging 45, including an average of 18 offensive boards.

“It’s going to be a physical matchup,” Mullin said following Tuesday’s 80-55 win over Central Connecticut State. “I told our players, this is going to be the biggest and strongest team that we’ve played so far. They are going to bring their physicality. ... That’s always been the case with the Big Ten Conference. We have to meet that with force, and then get back and play our game. That’s going to be a big focal point of ours.”

St. John’s has matched expectations thus far, producing expected outcomes. But just because they haven’t been challenged, doesn’t mean they’ re unprepared for the challenge ahead.

“We still got a ways to go, but we feel pretty good,” Clark said.