STAMFORD — Stamford’s Tevin St. John is a guard by nature.
He is more comfortable playing the perimiter on offense and guarding players with similar roles on other teams.
The last two seasons, and this winter in particular, St. John has been asked to take on the opposing team’s big man on defense and to play in both the high and low post on offense.
St. John has embraced the change with his ultimate desire being team goals.
“I just do anything to help my team win,” St. John said. “I said it since the beginning of the year, my number one goal is to win.”
St. John has been forced into the role of defending the other teams’ big men because Stamford often has five guards on the court at the same time.
The only relief is when 6-foot-4 forward Tyler Landsiedel is on the court, otherwise Stamford is generally playing a smaller lineup than its opponents.
This often leaves the 6-1-inch St. John physically drained at the end of games, as he rarely goes to the bench for anything more than a quick breather.
“Tevin (St. John) has to do a lot of things for us and his job is not easy,” Stamford coach Zach Smith said. “We challenge him every night. His role as far as size wise, means he is going to have to guard the other team’s big man. He gets tired, we understand that, so, we need to manage his minutes, but he has to do a lot for us. That’s just the way it is. He has the skill set to be able to guard big men. He is a versatile player and we are just trying to use him the best we can.”
The Black Knights lost three straight earlier in the month, but are currently riding a four-game winning streak, in part, because players are following St. John’s lead and embracing their roles on the team.
“After the three-game losing streak we were on we had to look at ourselves and realize we weren’t playing good defense. We started to pick it up in practice and it is really starting to show in our games,” St. John said. “We still have little stuff to work on but I feel like they are all starting to see the vision of what we can really do this year if we all put our heads together.”
Defense obviously requires all five players commitment and St. John is not alone in stepping up his game.
St. John is the leader, but the style Stamford plays on both sides of the ball requires all five players acting in concert.
Josh Thervil, Jelani Jackson, Jay Javdon and Harry Constantine have all increased their defensive presence, swarming on opposing offenses and creating turnovers and transition baskets.
A senior, Constantine was not getting many minutes at the beginning of the season, but has been the first off the bench recently and has even cracked the starting lineup.
He is on the floor primarily to play defense and has made a big impact on the entire unit.
“Harry (Constantine) has been playing great defense and has really helped out,” Smith said “Sometimes it can just take one guy to change the energy and focus on the defensive end.”
Tuesday against Greenwich, the defense played the best it has all season, shutting out the Cardinals in an 18-0 second quarter.
It is not coincidence that the current winning streak goes hand-in-hand with a renewed focus on defense and rebounding.
“It starts with the defense. Our defense has been better. We had a bad stretch there in those three losses but it has been getting better,” Smith said. “I really think it is about rebounding. We are small and if we give up second shots it can become demoralizing and no team is good when they are one and done on offense. Rebounding is huge for us.”
Winning the rebounding battle when the other team is taller than you, requires a dedication to boxing out and scrapping for loose balls that cannot be faked.
Along with the dedication defensively, the team has shared the offensive responsibilities with a different high-scorer every night.
Smith has preached making the extra pass and being patient, but the team was slow to implement the strategy.
That was, until they saw how well it worked.
“There was a little selfishness earlier but we have started sorting that out,” St. John said. “We realize that if we move the ball one more time and hit the open man, the offense is much easier.”
Now, at the halfway point of the season, Stamford is right where it wants to be with a 5-2 FCIAC record, putting the team in the thick of the conference playoff race.
Smith knows the path ahead of them is not easy, knows there is much work to still be done but feels the team is moving in the right direction.
“We are still working on learning to play with a lead. We did time and score for a half hour at practice but we still need to work on it more,” Smith said. “It’s not easy and that’s why we have to work on it. We are at the halfway point, so, we have to keep grinding and keep showing up every day in practice and hopefully the wins will take care of themselves.”
sericson@stamfordadvocate.com; @EricsonSports