Lavin has St. John's ready for Duke

After losing for the fifth time in six games by a 25-point margin Wednesday at Georgetown, St. John's seemed dazed and confused for the first time under first-year coach Steve Lavin. Justin Burrell and Dwight Hardy suggested a players-only team meeting to sort through the reasons that a season that began with such promise was in danger of falling apart.

But instead of a discussion group, Lavin went the old-fashioned route to prepare his team for No. 3 Duke (18-1) in a nationally televised game at 1 p.m. Sunday at Madison Square Garden. Starting in the weight room and moving to the video room and finally to the court, he had the Red Storm (11-8, 4-5 Big East) put in five hard hours of work Friday, the last three of which were spent scrimmaging.

"It was a great practice," Burrell said. "We were fighting for every ball and for every rebound. A couple of guys got fat lips and a couple got sore knees. We tried to get back to being an aggressive, physical team. We have to compete every play."

The Duke game is the eighth straight for the Red Storm against a team ranked in the top 25. "I'm not sure if that has ever happened in the history of college basketball," Lavin said. "There's areas where our deficiencies have been exposed and areas where you slip. As a coach, you're always moving the buckets to where the roof is leaking."

Lavin's goal when he took over a team with 10 seniors was to improve shot selection and foul shooting and to reduce turnovers. The Storm has done that across the board, but there are times when bad habits in one or more of those areas jump up to bite them.

Running such a tough gantlet against the second-toughest schedule in the country (Tennessee's somehow ranked first going into Saturday) would test the confidence of any team, let alone a group that has yet to reach the NCAA Tournament.

"Physically, it's been tough," guard Malik Stith said. "Mentally, we have breakdowns, and it carries over."

Lavin has told his team the coming week presents a "rare opportunity" to regain some momentum. After Duke, the Storm has Rutgers on Wednesday at Carnesecca Arena and can get back to .500 in conference play with a win. Then St. John's will travel to UCLA for a game Saturday.

"It's a great opportunity in a short period to play storied programs on national TV bookended around an important conference game," Lavin said. "I sense our team is eager to play this game against Duke."

The Blue Devils have a decided size advantage plus the talent of All-Americans Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith, but freshman point guard Kyrie Irving remains out with an injury. Without him, beating Duke at least is in the realm of possibility, but Burrell said the Red Storm must play with a lot more intensity than it showed in the Georgetown loss.

"This is college basketball at its highest level," Burrell said. "It doesn't get any higher than against Duke at the Garden on CBS."