OMAHA, Neb. — St. John's University is thinking big.
How big is it?
Big East Championship Big.
“The only motivation is we’re trying to win the whole league,” junior wing RJ Lewis said Monday. “We're aiming for a big win and we're looking to go dancing in March.”
It's something that is often discussed, said the Johnny's leading scorer.
among teammates and coaches.
Coach Rick Pitino isn't shying away from that.
“Every day. The whole team. [talks about it]. We said we need to focus on these games and then we can win the league and we have a chance to win the league,” Lewis said. “As long as we stay focused and focus on the details, we’re in good shape to win the league against anyone.”
And consider meeting Creighton at CHI Health Center on New Year's Eve an important step.
St. John's has won just once in 11 games in Omaha, Nebraska, and could improve to 3-0 in league play for the first time since the 1998-99 season.
The Blue Jays remain one of the league's top teams despite struggling during nonconference and losing top transfer Pop Isaacs to season-ending hip surgery.
They have wins over No. 7 Kansas, Notre Dame and Villanova, and they have a 7-foot-1 dynamo, Big East preseason player of the year Ryan Kalkbrenner, and a lights-out shooting point guard. Stephen Ashworth.
Pitino has repeatedly said that the difference between the top and bottom of the Big East is negligible and that a road win will separate the favorites from the favorites.
Road teams have 5 wins and 6 losses in conference play so far.
The five wins were not easy, with an average difference of 3.2 points.
“If we can win on the road in this conference, we have a chance to be one of the top teams,” Pitino said. “It's going to be very difficult for any team, any team in this conference, to win on the road because we don't have DePaul or Georgetown from last year anymore. … This year is a lot different than last year. 50 in road games. If you can win a percentage, whoever does that will win the conference.”
St. John's (11-2, 2-0) took the first step on Dec. 20, rallying from 16 down to win at Providence for the first time since 2017.
Check out the latest Big East standings and St. Louis standings. John's statistics
This will be a similar challenge.
The hope is that the Johnnys' shooting will be much better than against the Flyers, where they missed 15 free throws and made 3-of-18 3-pointers.
“This is a game where all five guys have to contribute strongly,” Pitino said. “It's not just one guy. To beat Creighton, we're going to need seven or eight guys to play really well because they shoot really well.”
Despite getting off to an 11-2 start with Big East wins over DePaul and Providence, the Johnnies remain unproven.
They have struggled to pitch complete games, but nine of their 10 wins have come by 13 points or more.
They fell a combined four points behind their top two opponents in the tournament, projected No. 25 in the tournament Baylor and Georgia.
This is your chance to make a breakthrough against a high-quality team in your own building.
St. John's needs to win games like this if it truly wants to compete for conference honors.
Lewis warned that making a statement “will take more than one game”. “That's definitely [would be] The beginning. It's great to win another road game. ”
