St. John’s is right on the bubble with not many opportunities left for quality wins. Can they take advantage of a shot at the No. 2 Duke Blue Devils?
TV schedule: Saturday, February 2, 12:00 pm ET. ESPN
Arena: Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, North Carolina
As the calendar turns to February of the college basketball season, bubble teams are in desperate mode looking for signature wins in order to make the NCAA Tournament. One of those teams is St. John’s 16-5 (4-5), right in the middle after a rough couple of weeks.
The Red Storm lost back-to-back games to Butler and Georgetown, before beating Creighton earlier this week on the road by 16 points. Shamorie Ponds filled up the stat sheet, putting up 26 points, eight rebounds, eight assists, and six steals. Mustapha Heron and LJ Figueroa chipped in with 17 and 15 points apiece.
The next opponent for St. John’s will be the toughest they’ve fought this season in Duke 18-2 (7-1), currently ranked No. 2 in the AP top-25 polls. The Blue Devils are riding a four-game winning streak, beating Georgia Tech by 22 points earlier this week. Zion Williamson led all scorers with 26 points, while RJ Barrett and Cam Reddish combined for 30.
In our latest Bracketology, Duke is at the top with a one seed, while St. John’s is barely in at an 11. This game is pivotal to both programs, as one wants to solidify their spot in the NCAA Tournament, while the other wants to do the same at the very top of their region bracket of choice.
Last season, St. John’s pulled off the massive upset over the Blue Devils, led by Ponds’ 33 points. Almost all of the other key contributors from both sides in that game aren’t around for this one. Ponds may have to put up another 30+ point performance on the road for the Red Storm to keep up with the fourth-highest scoring offense in the country (87.2 ppg).
Although it’s a completely new cast of players, this is still a revenge game for Duke against St. John’s. And while I still believe that Ponds will have a good shooting game, the Blue Devils at home will be too much in the final 10 minutes to pull away.