On a night where the St. John’s basketball team was able to relax and watch the rest of the league play, everything fell in favor of the Red Storm in its quest to be the No. 1 seed in the Big East Tournament.
A win against Seton Hall on Friday night will ensure the No. 18 Johnnies the top seed at Madsion Square Garden next week after Creighton’s win over Butler and Providence’s stunning blowout loss against Marquette on Wednesday evening.
The results ensured that the Bluejays will finish ahead of the Friars in the regular season standings, which is the top tiebreaker between St. John’s and UConn after the Red Storm swept Creighton while the Huskies split its season series.
It would be the first time since the 1985 and 1986 conference tournaments that St. John’s was the No. 1 seed in back-to-back years.
However, there is more at stake than just the top seed in the Big East Tournament for Rick Pitino’s team on Friday night in Newark. A victory also earns the Johnnies at least a share of the league’s regular season title.
Its only path at winning the outright regular season championship would be to beat Seton Hall and hope Marquette upsets UConn in Milwaukee on Saturday afternoon.
“It would mean everything,” Zuby Ejiofor said on Tuesday night after the Red Storm’s 72-69 win over Georgetown about winning a second straight Big East regular season championship.
“We put our heart, our soul into every day, every practice, every game and, more than anything, I want [his teammates] to experience that moment of winning a championship because they deserve it and that’s what they came here for. They came here for a reason. They came here to win big.”
While it was a good night for St. John’s path to the No. 1 seed, it came at a cost for its NCAA Tournament resume.
Providence’s loss almost guarantees the Friars to drop below No. 75 in the NET rankings, eliminating a Quad 1 win and adding a Quad 3 loss to St. John’s team sheet.
Baylor, who entered at No. 51 in the NET, is just outside a Quad 1 win for the Red Storm and saw a four-point lead with eight minutes to go against No. 6 Houston turn into a 13-point loss.
The only good news is that Villanova, which is three spots away from Quad 1 territory, won by 19 points on the road at DePaul and could get a boost in the rankings.
As of Wednesday, St. John’s was 3-5 in Quad 1 games, 9-1 in Quad 2 games, and 12-0 in Quad 3 and 4 games.