St. John's badly needs a victory over Seton Hall to help its NCAA Tournament hopes
St. John's Red Storm center Joel Soriano looks on during the first half against the Seton Hall Pirates at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. on Jan. 16. Credit: Noah K. Murray
The inches have been adding up against St. John’s for a while now.
Failing to get a last-minute defensive rebound at top-ranked UConn. Failing to get another at No. 17 Creighton. A pair of missed three-pointers in the last minute against No. 4 Marquette at the Garden. A poor final three minutes at Xavier. An anemic final six at Marquette.
Each on its own is a near-miss. Taken together, they’ve created a considerable gap between the Red Storm and their goal of reaching the NCAA Tournament.
There are six regular-season games left, beginning with Sunday’s 5 p.m. Big East contest against Seton Hall at UBS Arena, and there still is a chance to get on the right side of the bubble. Six games to avoid a scenario in which the Red Storm must win the conference tournament title to achieve the goal.
After Tuesday’s three-point defeat at Providence left St. John’s with seven losses in the last nine games, Rick Pitino said, “We intend on winning our next six games.” And that may be exactly what is required.
One thing seems a certainty regardless of the viewing angle on the Red Storm (14-11, 6-8): They have to beat Seton Hall (16-9, 9-5). Slip here and nothing is a certainty even if they win the last five.
Some would say the metrics so many consider vital — the NET ranking — suggest otherwise because the Red Storm started Saturday at 46 and the Pirates at 68. But hold that thought because the numbers really don’t appear to tell the entire story. The Pirates have a win over UConn — an accomplishment the Red Storm can’t match, even if they earn a home win over Creighton next Sunday — and two more “Quad 1’’ wins.
If Seton Hall completes a regular-season sweep of St. John’s on Sunday, can anyone see a reasonable scenario in which the Red Storm make the field of 68 without the Pirates getting in, too?
In the Big East line for NCAA Tournament admission at this moment, both currently stand behind the three ranked teams and Butler.
And it’s tough to say where either of them is when evaluated against Providence, Xavier and Villanova. Things are that close, magnifying the importance of this game.
But if St. John’s wins Sunday and combines that with beating Creighton or winning at Butler a week from Tuesday — or both — the Red Storm could emerge from six dark weeks looking good.
“We still control our own destiny,” Chris Ledlum said Friday.
“I know some people say we’re running out of time, but you never know what happens,” said Daniss Jenkins, echoing Ledlum’s thought. “We’ve got the greatest coach in college basketball. We go hard for each other . . . You can come out and play yourself into the tournament. Just like you can lose your [way] out of the tournament, you can win your [way] into the tournament.”
As if the Red Storm didn’t already have motivation in spades going against Seton Hall, the bad taste from their Jan. 16 loss at Prudential Center lingers. Pitino and Jordan Dingle were absent with COVID-19 and the rest of the team played as if they were ailing, too, as they turned in their worst performance in months. They trailed by 23 with less than three minutes left and lost by 15. Jenkins said that after playing so many good teams tough, it was “unacceptable.”
“It was like we were laying down and getting beat up and never fought back,” he added. “We played all these other great teams [one] way and then we come out and do that? We felt really bad about it.”
If Joel Soriano again can find his early-season form, it could take the Red Storm far against the Pirates. When the 6-11 senior was at his most impactful, St. John’s fared well against conference foes. He is not solely responsible, but as he has trended downward, St. John’s has slumped. Seton Hall backup center Elijah Hutchins-Everett — who averages 2.9 points and 3.9 rebounds — killed the Red Storm inside with season highs in points (14) and rebounds (seven) in a game in which Soriano was a shell of his former self with six points and four boards.
“We’re just going to lay it all on the line for these last six,” Jenkins said. “We’re going to lay it on the line for the whole 40 minutes and I believe we will be on the right side of the winning column.”
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.
