St. John's bid for an NCAA Tournament berth begins vs. Xavier
Joel Soriano of the St. John's Red Storm controls the ball in the second half against Abou Ousmane of the Xavier Musketeers at Carnesecca Arena on Dec. 20, 2023. Credit: Jim McIsaac
CINCINNATI — It’s been quite a while since there was as much buzz about a St. John’s game as there is about Saturday’s Big East matchup against No. 1 Connecticut at the Garden. And it’s entirely understandable, given the backdrop.
The game has already been announced as a sellout and the secondary ticket market is hopping; a quick glance on Tuesday showed one “entrepreneur” trying to get $9,500 for a pair of seats.
The Red Storm players left Hartford’s XL Center on Dec. 23 shaking their heads and muttering “should haves” after just missing the upset and losing by four. And something happened in that game that has things simmering between St. John’s coach Rick Pitino and Huskies coach Dan Hurley. It surfaced when the Hall of Famer suggested that UConn meet the Storm at Carnesecca Arena instead of the Garden next season.
The anticipation and intrigue is good stuff, evoking memories of when the Big East first rose to prominence.
However, this is not the time for any of it. It can be a big deal on Thursday. Today it is only a potential distraction from something very important for the Red Storm as they seek to get back into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019.
St. John’s (13-7, 5-4) has a 6:30 p.m. date Wednesday with Xavier (10-10, 4-5) at Cintas Center. The Storm are 2-8 at Cintas since the Musketeers joined the Big East, the Musketeers are stinging after a 43-point shellacking on Sunday by UConn and the Storm halted a three-game skid with last week’s win over Villanova but don’t want to have lost four of five going into the big weekend matchup.
“[Pitino] has just been on us to stay focused and understand the importance of the remaining games — every game counts,” Chris Ledlum said Monday. “You can’t overlook anyone.”
No program is going to lock up an NCAA Tournament berth in January. The Storm can take a big stride toward one by scoring a win and completing a regular-season sweep of the Musketeers.
Xavier was No. 53 in the NET rankings entering play on Tuesday, so this is a chance for a coveted “Quad 1” win, very helpful in the metrics the NCAA Tournament selection committee uses to select and seed the field of 68. The Storm goes in with a 2-5 mark in Quad 1 games.
And as seen already in the narrow loss to Connecticut, the one-point defeat at Creighton and the no-show performance at Seton Hall, Big East road wins are hard to come by and make a statement. St. John’s victory at Villanova may very well be considered its most impressive.
And of note: Seton Hall played Xavier here in December and lost by 20.
“I know how Cintas is a great home court and the road is going to be tough,” Pitino said last week. “I have the ultimate confidence in [our] guys. They’ll come to play. They’re ‘road tough.’ They took Creighton to the wire on the road. They’re mature. They’ve got great leadership.”
“We lost a couple of close games that could have gone either way and that we think we probably should have won,” Ledlum said. “So we just know how much of an emphasis there is on every game moving forward and how important it is.”
Additionally, St. John’s has a chance to make an argument to the selection committee with a win on Wednesday.
There will still be a slew of games to be played after this one — 10 more conference games and the Big East Tournament — and a lot can happen. But it would be hard to envision the committee picking Xavier for its field before St. John’s if the Storm completes the sweep. They already have swept Villanova and that should put the Storm in front of the Wildcats, too.
Right now, it’s impossible to say how many Big East teams will make the NCAA Tournament. A quick scan of the many outlets that project the tournament field shows as many as eight teams from the conference in the running; most have between four and six — including St. John’s — in the draw and between two and four on one side of the bubble or the other.
St. John’s needs to be as close to the front of the Big East line as possible.
“We don’t want to leave anything up to chance,” Ledlum said. “I think we’re definitely in a place where we’re ready to take back off and win a bunch of games.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
