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The Time to Buy BJ Ranson Stock is Now, Plus a Shoutout to Fellow Big 5 Freshmen RJ Smith and Latief Lorenzano-White
By Matt Schultz
Published:
The St. Joe’s Hawks are 3-0, and their 83-80 win over South Florida on Wednesday was their biggest one yet. USF is a good team. They fell to 1-2 with the loss, but preseason projections had them finishing third in the American after going 25–9 (15–3 in conference play) last year, a season they capped off with a conference championship win and an 11-seed in the NCAA tournament.
The Bulls have a new coach in 2026 (Chris Mack, who’s had stops at Xavier and Louisville) after Bryan Hodgson left for Providence, and the roster went through a ton of turnover, but despite the new-look USF squad, this will probably end up being a very solid Quad 2 win for St. Joe’s. And it wouldn’t have happened without BJ Ranson:
The freshman led all scorers with 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting and was 6-of-9 (!!!) from three. He also chipped in 2 rebounds and a steal in his 32 minutes, all without committing a turnover. It was a big-time game, and even more than the raw stats, a few of his buckets were absolutely huge coming down the stretch. Look at the time and score on this hit:
You see the little Hawk flaps he did coming back down the floor? That’s just nice. That’s good stuff. This team has some good vibes. And the more they play, the more their gritty, defensive-minded identity is coming to the forefront, too.
Aside from Ranson’s offense, the reason the Hawks won this game is turnover differential: St. Joe’s coughed the ball up just 6 times, while USF had 21 turnovers. SJU generated 12 steals (!!!); the Bulls had just 2. St. Joe’s also threw in 9 blocks — 5 from Sean Logan alone — for good measure. Taking care of the basketball, forcing turnovers, and protecting the rim is a good recipe for success, and the Hawks seem to be sticking to it.
It also helped that SJU finally shot the ball well from three (12-of-26, 46%), had another big game from Khaafiq Myers (15 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds), and got a well-rounded performance from Austin Williford (9 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and a game-high 4 steals). I am not going to talk about the Hawks’ truly abysmal shooting on non-threes (12-of-43 from two-point range, that’s 27.9% on twos, that might be the worst two-point percentage I’ve ever seen in my life, Jesus). Also not going to linger too long on Jaiden Glover-Toscano’s hand injury. I’m going to choose to believe he’ll be fine. This was a good day for the Hawks. Good win there.
More Freshmen shout outs
After writing all that stuff about Ranson, I feel like I should shout out two other Big 5 freshmen who had big games this week. I am a fair and balanced journalist:
1) La Salle’s RJ Smith posted a team-high 13 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the field and 1-of-4 from three in 22 minutes against Villanova on Tuesday night. It’s a solid stat line, but it felt even better watching it. 9 of Smith’s 13 points came in the first half, before Villanova really started pulling away. He gave the Explorers a real shot in the arm and was doing everything he could to keep La Salle within striking distance, which is exactly what you’d hope for from a freshman coming off the bench. He’s also a Philly kid. His game feels very Philly guard, too. The 5’9 freshman went to Imhotep before transferring to Roman Catholic his senior year. Very fun player. Good to see him playing well:
2) Drexel’s Latief Lorenzano-White had 18 points (6-of-12 from the field, 4-of-8 from three), 3 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal in 33 minutes in a loss to American on Wednesday. This kid is very good. The reigning CAA Rookie of the Week hit two massive free throws to keep things tied up going into the last minute of the game, all before American hit a turnaround middy at the buzzer for the win. It was pretty nuts:
Still, though, impressive stuff. And Teef is another Philly kid. Went to Bartram before going to Imhotep, where he was teammates with RJ Smith:
Teef also wears sick glasses. Look at these sick glasses:
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…) email: M.Schultz@sportradar.com