The St. John’s basketball team could clinch the Big East regular season championship on Wednesday night against Butler, but the No. 7 Johnnies (24-4, 15-2 Big East) will need some help to do it this soon.
If the Red Storm defeat the Bulldogs (13-14, 6-10 Big East), they will earn at least a share of the conference’s title and could take the outright crown if DePaul (11-17, 2-15 Big East) pulls a massive upset on the road against Creighton (19-8, 12-4 Big East).
Both games tipoff at the same time – 9:00 p.m. ET.
St. John’s magic number is two and any combination of Red Storm victories and Bluejay losses would get the job done for the Johnnies. The program has not won a share of the Big East regular season title since 1992 and sole possession of the championship since 1985.
Rick Pitino mentioned after the 89-75 victory over UConn that winning the Big East title would “mean a lot” for the program.
“This is what we spoke about when we all came together in July,” Kadary Richmond said over Zoom Tuesday morning on the team being close to winning the title. “It's nice to have this feeling that it’s right there for us to take. Nobody's giving it to us.”
“It's all up to us to go out there and take it. It's a great feeling to have.”
Richmond expects to play against Butler despite battling issues in both of his groins. The same can be said for RJ Luis, who missed last week’s victory over DePaul with a groin injury but returned on Sunday against UConn.
“We all have goals, personal goals, team goals, and you don't achieve your personal goals unless the team wins. So, with us winning, everybody is succeeding in their own way…I'm happy to see us all flourishing.”
If St. John’s and Creighton were to win on Wednesday, the Red Storm could clinch the Big East Championship and No. 1 seed in the Big East Tournament in front of its home fans on Saturday afternoon (2:15 p.m. ET, CBS) against Seton Hall (7-20, 2-14 Big East) inside Madison Square Garden.
“It just feels great to be in arms reach, but anything can happen. So, just staying focused, staying humble, and really just staying hungry,” Luis explained. “Knowing that we definitely could win it all, but we just got to keep on playing together and having fun with it.”
History is sitting there for the Red Storm and it feels only like a matter of time before there is a long overdue celebration in Queens.