St. John’s needs more from its guards in one glaring area

Rick Pitino wants more out of his backcourt.

Fifth-ranked St. John’s was outrebounded by 12 by No. 7 Michigan in an exhibition loss Saturday night at the Garden, and it was not the fault of big men Zuby Ejiofor, Dillon Mitchell and Bryce Hopkins.

They had 23 rebounds between them.

The issue was that Dylan Darling, Ian Jackson, Oziyah Sellers and Joson Sanon combined for just one.

“I’ve been very blessed in my coaching career with guards that rebound, and I’ve got a group here that doesn’t rebound the ball,” Pitino said. “We have to do something about that. And they’re good enough athletes to rebound.

“The most glaring weakness [on our team] is the guards not rebounding the ball.”

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Sellers, the team’s starting point guard, was scoreless in eight foul-plagued minutes.

“Oziyah has been fouling a lot in practice, and we have done a poor job as coaches in calling fouls,” Pitino said. “We’ve let him get away with putting hands on people. That was a great learning experience for him as well.”

Jackson was dealing with a sore ankle after missing multiple practices this week. Overall, he struggled, shooting 1-for-8 from the field in 21 minutes off the bench.

“I’m not concerned, he’ll play better than he did tonight,” Pitino said. “We got to work on Ian’s handle, where he gets a little bump, he doesn’t cough it up. But he’ll play better than he did tonight. I’ve got confidence in him.”

Michigan star Yaxel Lendeborg had 25 points, 10 rebounds and four assists. He was initially committed to St. John’s under former coach Mike Anderson. Lendeborg said he had a chip on his shoulder facing the Johnnies.

Asked about the senior, Pitino called him a “terrific player.”