The St. John’s basketball team only lost two games in conference play this season despite several close calls, but no one outside of Creighton and Villanova were able to down the Johnnies. However, a Butler star thinks an upset could be brewing on Thursday afternoon at the Big East Tournament.
The Bulldogs outlasted Providence in the opening round of the tournament on Wednesday afternoon, 75-69, setting up its third matchup of the year with the Red Storm and its previous two games are going to be major learning point entering the matchup.
“It's a home game for St. John's. It's going to be pretty packed in here, so we have to come in as one and come in calm and collected and try to get a [dub],” Pierre Brooks said.
“We gave up a lot of offensive rebounds today, and we know St. John's crashes the glass, so tomorrow we need to make an effort. We pride ourselves on boxing out, defending at a high level. If we do that, we have a great chance of winning.”
Brooks went for 25 points and seven rebounds, but the rebounding numbers were startling for the Bulldogs after being outrebounded by 24, 53-29, yet 25 offensive rebounds for Providence only yielded 18 points.
St. John’s is quite familiar with Butler, visiting Indianapolis two weeks ago and leaving with a 76-70 victory that was not always pretty despite the Red Storm shooting 49.2-percent from the field.
The Johnnies were outrebounded by the Bulldogs by seven, 39-32, and saw All-Big East First Team selection Zuby Ejiofor limited to just 23 minutes as he battled foul trouble.
“The good thing is you knew who you were going to play if you won, so we're prepared for that,” Butler head coach Thad Matta said.
“Obviously they're the best team in the league, so this is a great opportunity for our guys. I'm excited to play the game. Hopefully the players are.”
Tipoff between St. John’s and Butler is at 12:00 p.m. ET (Peacock).