How a St. John’s win over UConn would impact NCAA Tournament seeding for Rick Pitino’s club
By ADAM ZAGORIA
No. 3 UConn vs. No. 22 St. John’s.
Dan Hurley vs. Rick Pitino.
Under the bright lights on Friday night at Madison Square Garden.
It’s shaping up to be the biggest regular-season Big East game at the Garden in recent memory, with courtside tickets going for more than $2,000 in some cases.
“It’s UConn on Friday night at MSG, what more could you ask for?” St. John’s big man Zuby Ejiofor told reporters Tuesday after the team’s 68-56 win at DePaul. “Just two great programs going head-to-head with two great coaches. It’s going to be exciting and it’s going to be a packed crowd, but all we can worry about is ourselves and preparing the right way, preparing like a championship team, as coach says all the time.”
Aside from the obvious implications for pride and standings in the Big East, the game has enormous meaning for NCAA Tournament seeding, especially for St. John’s, which is now a projected 5 or 6 seed after winning eight in a row.
“[A win] would keep them alive to continue to climb up the seed list to potentially be a top 4 protected seed,” New Jersey-based bracketologist Brad Wachtel said. “St. John’s is currently a 5 or 6 seed, but if they are able to get to that 4 seed line, they have the potential of playing close to home for rounds 1 and 2. Philadelphia could be the destination. That would be a big deal and a win over UConn would keep the Red Storm afloat for a 4-seed for the time being.”
Added Mike DeCourcy of FOX:
“[St. John’s] is very close to a 5 seed now. The obvious problem is the relative lack of high-end opportunities in the league, so taking advantage of one of the few is essential. Especially given that the game is at home.
“I’m not sure they could get higher than a 4. But defeating UConn would be a good start in attempting to challenge that apparent limitation.”
Pitino is indeed treating each game like an NCAA Tournament game. Survive and advance.
“Well, I just try to prepare every game as if it’s our last,” he said. “I told the team beforehand, I said, when you get into February, I’ve mentioned to my teams all the time, you play this game as if you’re getting ready for the NCAA Tournament and you don’t show up in the NCAA tournament and say, ‘Okay, this is what we’re going to do, you prepare now. This game we had to win to advance to UConn. So that was the message we had for them, you prepare in February for March and right now, I think we’re playing with whatever style we have to play. Their will to win is great.”
UConn, meantime, wants to remain unbeaten in the Big East and is eyeing a pathway through Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. to yet another Final Four, this time in Indianapolis.
They are currently a projected 1 seed, and want to keep that momentum going as they shoot for their 19th straight win.
“We’re looking at it,” Hurley, the Jersey City native and former Seton Hall guard, said last month. “We gotta earn the right and win enough games across the first couple months of the year to then start talking to your team about the East Region and where we want to be, but we’re getting closer for that to start being a conversation.”
Photo: Getty Images
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