Busting Brackets
Fansided

Big East Basketball: Creighton rises on top in latest 2020-21 power rankings

By Salvador Lopez

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - JANUARY 22: Marcus Zegarowski #11 of the Creighton Bluejays in action in the game against the DePaul Blue Demons during the first half at Wintrust Arena on January 22, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - JANUARY 22: Marcus Zegarowski #11 of the Creighton Bluejays in action in the game against the DePaul Blue Demons during the first half at Wintrust Arena on January 22, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
7 of 12
Next
St. John's Basketball
Big East Basketball Julian Champagnie St. John’s Red Storm (Photo by Porter Binks/Getty Images) /

6. St. John’s Red Storm (14-9, 8-8 Big East)

Within the last month St. John’s has been making a push towards the NCAA Tournament bubble. It looked as if the Red Storm would be a team that no one would want to face in March.

From January 18th to February 6th, St. John’s would go on a six-game winning streak, which included a 70-59 victory over Villanova. This game would mark the Wildcats season-low currently in the fewest points scored in a game this season.

Unfortunately for St. John’s, their momentum that they were riding in early-January was shattered when they lost in overtime to Butler 76-73.

Still, with the overtime loss to Butler on February 9th, St. John’s found themselves in the hunt for an NCAA Tournament bid. However, that was until this past Saturday where their NCAA Tournament resume took a major hit.

In a game that they needed to have, St. John’s allowed DePaul to shoot 34-for-54 from the floor (63 percent), with the Blue Demons pulling off the 88-83 upset over the Red Storm at Carnesecca Arena.

Just like he has done for the entire season, sophomore guard, Julian Champagnie (20.2 ppg, 7.2 rpg), put his team on his back and scored 29 points in the loss while making five three-point shots. Champagnie, who is currently the top scorer in the conference, was able to score at least 20 points for the tenth time this season on Saturday.

Defensive inconsistency has been the biggest weakness for St. John’s this season and it showed on Saturday. The Red Storm are currently last in the Big East allowing just under 78 points per game this season.

However, even if they do come up short this season on an NCAA Tournament bid, the Red Storm have a lot to look forward to next season if they retain their players in the offseason. The top five scorers currently for St. John’s are either freshman, sophomores, or juniors. All five players are currently averaging over nine points per game.

Freshman point guard, Posh Alexander (11.4 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 4.5 apg), is having a terrific first season and is currently seventh nationally with 2.6 steals per game.

St. John’s will have three games remaining before the Big East Conference Tournament. The Red Storm will look for the sweep by upsetting Villanova for the second time this season. St. John’s will face Villanova at Finneran Pavilion on Tuesday.

The Red Storm will then host Providence on Wednesday, March 3rd and will close out their season at home against Seton Hall on Saturday, March 6th.

Home/Big East