The St. John’s basketball team has been positioning itself for a protected seed in the NCAA Tournament and it found out on Saturday afternoon that its hard work has paid off.
The No. 9 Johnnies were the No. 4 seed in the East Region during the NCAA Tournament Top-16 seed reveal, coming in as the No. 16 overall seed.
Rick Pitino’s team was the only Big East team included in the Top-16, narrowly edging out Marquette.
Duke, Tennessee, and Arizona were the other Top-3 seeds in the East Region.
St. John’s has not been a Top-4 seed in the NCAA Tournament since the 1999-2000 season, which was the last time the program won a game in March Madness. The last time the Red Storm made the Big Dance was the 2018-19 season, the final year under head coach Chris Mullin, but lost in the First Four.
“It would mean a lot to us, the whole staff, the community, and it's something that we've been working for the whole season,” Zuby Ejiofor said on Friday afternoon about what it would mean to see St. John’s included in the Top-16 reveal.
“We are trying to improve from last year and just trying to go as far as possible. We're taking it one game at a time. And obviously, our defense speaks volumes to the amount of wins that we've had this year.”
St. John’s (21-4, 12-2 Big East) is coming off its first loss in nearly two months against Villanova, 73-71, on Wednesday night which snapped a ten-game winning streak for the Johnnies.
“Once we get our offense and spacing a lot better, we are really a team to be reckoned with.”
Pitino, however, said he would not pay any attention to the Top-16 seed.
“I’m just taking it one game at a time, taking nothing for granted. We blew a situation to get into the top six or seven in the nation by not playing great defense. So, I don't pay attention to anything.”
St. John’s hosts No. 24 Creighton (18-7, 11-3 Big East) on Sunday afternoon (3:00 p.m. ET, FS1) at Madison Square Garden with first place in the Big East hanging in the balance.