March Madness: St. John's earns No. 2 seed in West Region in NCAA Tournament, will open against Omaha
St. John's head coach Rick Pitino celebrates with his team after the Red Storm were selected as a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, March 16, 2025. Credit: Howard Simmons
Time and time again this season, Rick Pitino has delivered for St. John’s.
Its first outright Big East regular-season title since 1985.
Its first Big East Tournament title since 2000.
And now, officially cemented after beating Creighton in Saturday night’s conference championship game, its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2019.
The Naismith Hall of Famer has led St. John’s (30-4) to the No. 2 seed in the West Region, it was announced during Sunday’s bracket reveal. The Red Storm will play No. 15 Omaha (22-12), the Summit League Tournament champion, in the first round at 9:45 p.m. Thursday at Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence, Rhode Island.
“I don’t know anything about Omaha, so don’t ask me what I think of them,” Pitino told reporters Sunday night. “I’m sure they’re a good basketball team because they’ve won their tournament, but I don’t know anything about them.
“We’re excited to be going to Providence. It’s not a long trip for us. I know the players were all excited, the fans are excited, so it’s a great opener. Outside of that, we’ll start studying as soon as I leave you.”
St. John’s, which has 30 wins for the third time in program history, earned its highest NCAA Tournament seed since 2000, when it also was a No. 2 seed.
If they beat Omaha, the Red Storm — the eighth overall seed — will face either No. 7 Kansas or No. 10 Arkansas in the second round Saturday in Providence. Like Pitino, Kansas coach Bill Self and Arkansas coach John Calipari are Hall of Famers.
Florida is the No. 1 seed in the West. The regional semifinals and final will be played in San Francisco. The Final Four is in San Antonio.
Pitino, in his second season at St. John’s, is the first coach to take six different teams to the NCAA Tournament. The others were Boston University, Providence, Kentucky, Louisville and Iona.
The only three St. John’s players who have played NCAA Tournament minutes are Zuby Ejiofor (for Kansas), Kadary Richmond (for Syracuse and Seton Hall) and Sadiku Ibine Ayo (for Iona with Pitino).
Deivon Smith, at his fourth power-conference program in five seasons, will play in his first NCAA Tournament.
“It’s a blessing, kind of a dream-come-true moment with a special group of guys,” he said. “I’m just soaking it all in and just going day by day and seeing what’s next.”
In 2019, St. John’s was one of the last four at-large teams selected and lost to fellow 11-seed Arizona State in the First Four in Dayton, Ohio. It will play its first Round of 64 game since 2015, when the ninth-seeded Red Storm lost to No. 8 San Diego State.
The Red Storm have not won an NCAA Tournament game since 2000, when they beat No. 15 Northern Arizona in the first round and lost to No. 10 Gonzaga in the second round.
St. John’s has not made the Sweet 16 since 1999, when it also reached the Elite Eight. It has not made the Final Four since 1985 and has played in only one national championship game, a loss to Kansas in 1952.
Last season, Selection Sunday left the Red Storm with disappointment instead of elation. On the bubble with a 20-13 record and a No. 32 NET ranking, St. John’s was not even among the selection committee’s first four teams out of the field.
“Last year, it was hard because we sat through the whole show thinking like, ‘OK, the next pick we’re going to get in,’ and obviously we didn’t make the tournament,” said RJ Luis Jr., the Big East Player of the Year this season. “So that was pretty hard just to see the seniors, what they tried to do, what they tried to build, and we couldn’t get the job done. But this year, obviously, we took care of business.”
St. John’s enters The Big Dance as one of the country’s elite teams and is playing its best basketball. St. John’s has won nine straight games, 19 of 20 and 25 of 27. The Red Storm’s four losses have come by a total of seven points, none by more than three.
St. John’s has the nation’s top defense, according to kenpom.com’s adjusted defensive efficiency ratings. St. John’s is 65th in adjusted offensive efficiency and shoots only 30.4% from three-point range, though it was an improved 36.5% from outside the arc (19-for-52) during the Big East Tournament.
“I think us getting a two-seed is definitely a blessing,” Luis said. “But our main priority and full focus is on Thursday.”
This is the fifth time St. John's has been seeded No. 2 or higher since the NCAA selection committee started fully seeding teams in 1979. How their forerunners fared:
Year Seed Result
1983 1 Lost in Sweet 16
1985 1 Lost in Final 4
1986 1 Lost in 2nd Round
2000 2 Lost in 2nd Round
Ben Dickson joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.
