The Big East has a ton of rabid fan bases, but none are as crazy as St. John’s Red Storm fans, especially when the Red Storm are good. Jamaica, New York, has been nuts this season as the St. John’s Red Storm won the Big East regular season for the first time since the Lou Carnasecca days. The Red Storm took it a step further and completed the job and won the Big East tournament for the 18th automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
St. John’s qualified for their 31st NCAA Tournament, It was the first time that the Red Storm have qualified for the tournament since the 2018-2019 season when Chris Mullin was still the coach. St. John’s enters the tournament at 30-4 and finished 18-2 in the Big East. This has been arguably the best regular season in St. John’s history, where it ends up in Red Storm history remains to be seen.
St. John’s earned a 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. That is their highest seed since the 1999-2000 season when Mike Jarvis was the head coach. Rick Pitino is a legend and he clearly knows how to turn a program around and has done it in two short seasons. The Red Storm is in a position to make it to the second weekend and beyond. The program has not done that since the 1998-1999 season. To get to the second weekend you have to win the first game first. Here are some reasons that St. John’s can win a game in the NCAA Tournament.
Rick Pitino
Over the next few weeks, Pitino is going to be in the news a lot, and for good reason. He has taken a St. John’s program and was struggling to live up to the lofty expectations that they earned under coaches Carnasecca and Jarvis. Pitino has successfully turned them around and has a chance to get St. John’s further than they have been in a very long time. The legendary head coach has won two National Championships and is one of the only coaches to take four different programs to the NCAA tournament and win a National Championship with two different schools. St. John’s has done a fantastic job of listening to the teachings of the legend and has turned it into a dominant season. Just a couple more weeks of following their coach's lead and then hopefully to the promised land.
Rebounding
A staple of any Pitino-coached team is elite rebounding, and the Red Storm is one of the best rebounding teams in the country. They are averaging 41 rebounds a game, which is good enough for 4th overall in the country. Another staple of a Pitino-coached team is a team that crashes the offensive rebounds. St. John’s is elite at that as well. The Red Storm average 15 offensive rebounds a night, and most of the offensive rebounds are the back-breaking type that usually results in a putback dunk or a wide-open three. All offensive rebounds are killer but it seems as though St. John’s gets them at a time when the game is always in the balance. St. John’s will always be in a game because of their ability to rebound the basketball.
Turnovers
It's another staple of a Pitino-coached team. His teams love to muck it up on the defensive end and force a ton of turnovers that usually result in transition baskets. The Red Storm is one of the best in the country in forcing turnovers, getting steals, and getting run-out turnovers for easy transition baskets. St. John’s is forcing 16 turnovers a night, half of those turnovers are steals that result in the aforementioned easy baskets. The Red Storm are frustrating to play because of their ability to turn teams over at a high rate. They will break your will, and that is exactly what the Red Storm and Coach Pitino are hoping for. That is exactly how they win games.
Coach Pitino will have St. John’s near the top of the Big East for as long as he is the coach there. He has done too much to not trust him to win the NCAA Tournament. The Red Storm will win a game and most likely many more games in the NCAA tournament. They are a sleeper team for the Final Four.