St. John's basketball forward Chris Ledlum ready for first postseason journey

Chris Ledlum played in 70 college basketball games with Harvard before becoming a member of the St. John's basketball team. He's played in 29 more this season with the Red Storm.

Not one of them has been in the postseason -- conference tournament or NCAA Tournament.

It's a very strange position for a senior that is coming to the end of his final year of eligibility, but Ledlum isn't focusing on that.

"It's kind of crazy," Ledlum explained of his first conference tournament game coming during his senior season. "I haven't really thought about it but I know it will be really cool. Excited."

Harvard did qualify for an Ivy League Tournament during Ledlum's tenure, but the game was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic at the end of the 2019-20 season.

Thursday afternoon (2:30 p.m. ET, FS1) against Seton Hall will be his 100th career college basketball game and it will also be the first time he is ever inside Madison Square Garden at the Big East Tournament, despite being a native New Yorker.

Besides the nuances of Ledlum's career, he's become an integral part of St. John's and a major reason why the Red Storm are on the cusp of its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2019.

His numbers aren't always the most flashy, but over the Johnnies' five-game winning streak he is averaging 12.4 points, 5.2 rebounds, 1.8 blocks, and 1.6 steals per game on 65.7-percent shooting (25-for-38) from the field and 50.0-percent (4-of-8) from 3-point range.

"Without question he's playing great basketball right now," Rick Pitino said after St. John's defeated Georgetown on Saturday afternoon behind 14 points from Ledlum on a perfect 6-for-6 shooting.

Pitino credits the mini resurgence in Ledlum's game to his health. The forward sprained his ankle in St. John's loss to UConn on December 23 and aggravated the injury on January 2 against Butler.

He missed a total of two games but now is finally close to 100-percent again.

"When you look at this basketball team, you right away see [RJ Luis] play awesome, you see [Daniss Jenkins] and the season he has had. You don't think of Chris Ledlum, but he does all the tough things," Pitino continued.

St. John's will need that toughness from Ledlum against Seton Hall, a team he and the team have struggled with this season, if the Red Storm want to make its first Big East Tournament Semifinal since 2000.