After a roller-coaster regular season, St. John’s doesn’t want its ride to end.
The Red Storm hope to remain red hot in Thursday afternoon’s Big East Tournament quarterfinal matchup with Seton Hall — a crucial game that could decide their NCAA Tournament fate.
St. John’s enters the conference tournament at Madison Square Garden on a five-game win streak yet remains on the March Madness bubble in its first season under head coach Rick Pitino.
The Johnnies finished the regular season with a 19-12 record, including 11-9 against the formidable Big East, but boast only one ranked win, which came last month over then-No. 15 Creighton. They’re just 3-9 against Quad 1 opponents, according to the NCAA’s Net Rankings, which value wins and losses using metrics including the game’s location.
A win over rock-solid Seton Hall, which went 20-11 overall and 13-7 in Big East play, would go a long way toward bolstering the Red Storm’s NCAA Tournament résumé.
“Pressure, to me, is your ally. It’s your best friend in life,” Pitino, who won Big East Tournaments as head coach of Louisville in 2009, 2012 and 2013, said Tuesday. “Stress is your enemy. This is what we live for, these moments.”
St. John’s lost both of its games against Seton Hall in the regular season. The Pirates unleashed a 28-0 run to win the first meeting, 80-65, at Newark’s Prudential Center on Jan. 15 in a game Pitino missed with COVID-19.
The Johnnies then blew a 19-point lead in a back-breaking 68-62 loss at Elmont’s UBS Arena on Feb. 18. That loss marked the Red Storm’s eighth in 10 games, putting their NCAA Tournament hopes in doubt. Afterward, Pitino bemoaned his team’s lack of athleticism and toughness — controversial criticisms he later apologized for.
St. John’s hasn’t lost since, winning the next five games to secure the No. 5 seed and a first-round bye in the Big East Tournament. The surge set up Thursday’s rematch with fourth-seeded Seton Hall, which tips off at 2:30 p.m. ET.
“Seton Hall’s been a challenge for us all year,” guard Jordan Dingle said Tuesday. “We know there’s a lot of stuff we need to change going into this game compared to how we played the last couple of ones. We’re just super focused on it, because at this point, it’s win or go home. We’re playing for our livelihood.”
Before Thursday’s game, CBS Sports projected St. John’s and Seton Hall to both be among the last four teams to make the NCAA Tournament. ESPN also predicted St. John’s to be among the last four in. Winning the Big East Tournament would clinch an automatic berth in the Big Dance.
St. John’s faces the tall task of slowing Seton Hall’s Kadary Richmond, a Brooklyn-born guard whose 16.2 points per game rank ninth among Big East players, and guard-forward Dre Davis, the reigning conference player of the week who scored at least 18 points in each of the last five games.
Thursday represents another revenge game for Bronx-born guard Dylan Addae-Wusu, who transferred to Seton Hall last offseason after three years at St. John’s. He delivered one of his best games of the season in the first meeting with the Red Storm with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
St. John’s hired the title-winning Pitino in hopes of turning around a program with only three NCAA Tournament appearances since 2002 and none since 2019. St. John’s last won a game during March Madness in 2000.
Pitino overhauled the roster, bringing back only two players from last year’s team, including senior center Joel Soriano. Among those who joined through the NCAA’s transfer portal was point guard Daniss Jenkins, who followed Pitino from Iona. He leads St. John’s with 14.7 points and 5.5 assists per game this season.
UConn is the No. 1 seed, Creighton is the No. 2 seed and Marquette is the No. 3 seed in the Big East Tournament, which runs through Saturday.
St. John’s has won four of its last five at the Garden, where it plays most of its Big East home games during the regular season. The lone loss came to UConn, which was then ranked No. 1 in the country.
“We’ve taken it one game at a time, just knowing that they are must-win games,” guard Chris Ledlum said of the Red Storm’s resurgence. “There’s definitely been a level of focus that we have maintained.”
