MILWAUKEE — You can twist yourself like a pretzel in defeat.
I wonder what would have happened if St. John’s had found a way to take one of those close games against No. 1 Connecticut, No. 7 Marquette and No. 19 Creighton, losing by a combined six points.
Follow all the Bracketologists, track the NCAA Tournament bubble, and try to understand what it will take for the Johnnys to return to March Madness and how all the results will directly impact their path. You can drive yourself crazy.
St. John’s fans tend to expect the worst, which is understandable considering they’ve been largely irrelevant for the past 20-plus years. They make Mets and Jets fans look like eternal optimists.
So it’s not surprising to hear the recent negativity surrounding this team, which had lost five of its past six games until Big East basement resident DePaul scored 28 points on Tuesday. .
Despite the disappointing loss, despite the slide, and despite St. John’s being in the middle of a bubble for the foreseeable future, everything is going well for first-year coach Rick Pitino’s team. There is.
Finished in the top five in the Big East. He returns to the tournament’s main draw for the first time since 2015. All of the Johnnys’ realistic preseason goals are well within reach. They control their own destiny.
The critical period begins in earnest Saturday against Marquette, followed by a key road game against Providence in the bubble, who are 48-5 in their last 53 games at Amica Mutual Pavilion. There’s another trip to Butler and home games against Creighton and Seton Hall.
St. John’s (14-9, 6-6) has already defeated Butler and Providence and lost to Creighton and Marquette by one point each. If they can’t win at least two of those games and deal with the remaining three games against DePaul and Georgetown, they won’t be able to participate in the tournament. Simple like that.
“We definitely want to get one,” point guard Danis Jenkins said of the upcoming two-game road trip. “Obviously we want to win both, but we know we need one.”
After the win over DePaul, an optimistic Pitino pointed to losses to UW, Marquette and Creighton and said St. John’s was just a few points away from deciding the standings. That’s true. However, the inability to finish games is also a frustrating trademark of this team. It exceeds those three.
Against Xavier, the Johnnies trailed 13-2 with 2 minutes, 43 seconds left. There were also setbacks against Boston College and No. 18 Dayton, which saw Pitino’s team close in the final five minutes. Overall, St. John’s is 5-5 in games decided by single digits and 3-6 in games trailing by six points or less with less than five minutes remaining.
“We’re just doing what we’re not good at in a tough game,” Jenkins said. “Until we accomplish that, until we overcome the challenges of winning those tough games and doing the little things differently, it’s going to be the same.
“There’s no need to do that. [anything] Not at all. If you go back and look at these games, we were winning these games. We won, but something just happened, [bad] Possessions, rebounds, things like that could have gone the other way. ”
These clutch shortcomings have hindered St. John’s University’s progress and led to a recent situation where it has seen far more losses than wins. Pitino’s first season has so far lacked any standout moments. Of course, there were strong performances, including two lopsided wins over Utah, Butler, Xavier and Villanova. However, Johnny’s missed out on that big win, and his tournament resume was slim.
Pitino was asked if he thought this was an NCAA Tournament team, and he didn’t hesitate at all.
“Yes, without a doubt,” he said, adding: [league] Whatever it takes to get there, you will win. I try to tell them to play every game as if it’s the last game they’ll play this time in February. ”
Pitino went on to call every game this month “huge” for everyone with March dreams. That’s especially true in St. John’s. All of their goals are possible despite a volatile January, but it will take the Johnnys’ best basketball to accomplish them.
