CINCINNATI — Chris Ledlum doesn’t check BracketMatrix.com.
He has not bookmarked the NET rankings page.
He doesn’t update KenPom.com after every game.
Still, the St. John’s senior forward is listening. It’s hard to avoid.
Now, the Johnnies are an NCAA Tournament team, and you can’t help but imagine what it would be like to be your hometown school’s first ever berth in the tournament.
“Not to sound cliché, but it means everything to do something like that in front of your home crowd,” Ledrum, a Brooklyn native, said ahead of St. John’s visit to Xavier on Wednesday. “I know Jordan [Dingle]Joel [Soriano] And locals feel the same way. The fan base is the people we grew up around. That would be great. ”
That’s something the players are talking about and certainly thinking about.
Only Danis Jenkins, Zubby Ejiofor, Cruz Davis, Saddiq Ivin Ayo and Nahiem Alleyne have played in this tournament so far.
Ledrum and Dingle chose to return home to play under Rick Pitino at St. John’s after three seasons in the Ivy League, even as they envisioned the opportunity to play in March Madness for the first time. be.
Soriano remained at Queen’s after the manager change for the same reason. For all three seniors, the chance to play on the sport’s biggest stage is now becoming a reality.
“That’s definitely on everyone’s mind, especially the players who haven’t played there. Everyone wants to play in the NCAA Tournament and they want to win games.” Mr Ledrum said. “Just to get there and have that opportunity, it’s [would] It means the world to us. ”
Most Bracketology projections currently have the Johnnies (13-7, 5-4) coming in as the No. 8 seed, firmly in the tournament, but comfortably far from the bubble.
St. John’s certainly looks like a tournament team given its history (7-6 in games 1 and 2), metrics (35th in NET rankings, 33rd in KenPom rankings), and overall trajectory. appear. He is 5-4 in the Big East, with three of those losses coming to No. 1 Connecticut, No. 9 Marquette and No. 13 Creighton by a combined six points.
Arashi is getting better. Alleyne (right ankle) is expected to return against Xavier, while Ledrum’s ankle, which was injured in a few games earlier this month, is near 100%.
Coach Pitino reiterated earlier this year that he expected this team to start coming into its own in February and would be in a bad position by not being able to absorb too many losses. Monday arrives Thursday and it looks like the Johnny family is ready to hit the ground running.
“I think we understand the importance of the remaining games and we don’t want to leave anything to chance,” Ledlum said. “We’re definitely at a point where we’re ready to bounce back and win a lot of games.”
But Mr Ledlam added: [than where we are now]. I never really get excited about projection. It’s a long season. We have to stay the course and keep moving forward. ”
Pitino accepted the tournament talk. Before Johnny beat Villanova, he told the team that it was a game they had to win to go to the dance. They had lost three in a row and couldn’t afford to extend their losing streak any further. The Johnnies played a heated 40 minutes and cruised to the Wildcats’ first season sweep since 1992-1993.
After the win, a proud Pitino spoke about how much he wanted to see this group reach the dance, especially those who had never participated before. Now, St. John’s has to build on that win or its spot in the tournament could be in jeopardy.
