The mentality of the St. John’s basketball team is not changing entering Friday’s NCAA Tournament opener against Northern Iowa. Its focus has been on the same goal all season to prepare for this moment.
“We've treated every game this year like a tournament game,” Dillon Mitchell said in San Diego on Thursday afternoon before the Red Storm’s open practice in Viejas Arena.
“Obviously it's a little bit different now. You lose a game now, you're going home. But that's just the type of mindset that we've had throughout the season -- treating every game like a tournament game and going out there to get that win.”
St. John’s is entering the NCAA Tournament winners in 19-of-20 games and a dominant run in the Big East Tournament with three victories by double digits and never trailing in a game.
“We have an opportunity to make something special out of this year,” Zuby Ejiofor explained.
“Obviously we already did some exciting things in the regular season and in the Big East Tournament, but now we can just put all that in the past and really focus in on making a run. It's six games, one game at a time.”
The Red Storm have not made the Sweet 16 since 1999 and are looking to eventually avenge its loss from last season in the Round of 32, but Rick Pitino knows it will not be easy getting through the champions of the Ohio Valley.
"I have coached against [Ben Jacobson] two different times, and we were life and death to beat them both times,” Pitino explained. “And they're much better this year than the other two times I've faced them at Louisville.”
In 2012, his Cardinals hung on by five, 51-46, to beat Northern Iowa in the Battle 4 Atlantis before eliminating the Panthers in the Round of 32 of 2015 NCAA Tournament, 66-53.
“It's like Seton Hall with great offensive players,” Pitino described this version of the Northern Iowa. “That's who you're playing. This team would be one of the premier teams in the Big East.”
In the Big East Tournament, St. John’s started each of its three games on at least an 8-0 run, something it is hoping to recreate in the NCAA Tournament.
“I think it just comes down to how we come out with the right approach and not just kind of play the pace of the game, start the pace of the game and start how we want to start,” Mitchell added.
“And we had some games this year where we went down, we had to fight back. And that's not type of game we want to be in… continue to be who we are, push the pace, play how we've played all year. I think that's where we're at our best.”
The journey begins for St. John's at 7:10 p.m. ET (CBS) in California.