18. St. John’s (23-6)
At the beginning of the week St. John’s was in an extremely satisfying position, riding one of the nation’s longest winning streaks while putting themselves right where they needed to be. The Red Storm had a few losses earlier in the season that they’d love to replay but had been playing much more inspired basketball during a 13-game winning streak. During that time they even upset UConn and had grabbed hold of the Big East lead regularly.
Dreams of that continuing were put sharply on hold on Wednesday, as St. John’s offense really disappeared in a 72-40 loss at UConn. The Huskies eviscerated them, with Joson Sanon the only double-digit scorer with 10 points as the team shot a mind-boggling 20% from the field. A complete reversal of fortune came Saturday, with the Red Storm holding on for an 89-57 blowout win over Villanova. Zuby Ejiofor had a triple-double and an incredible performance while Ian Jackson led the way with 19 points off the bench.
It’s really hard to judge a week where you lose by 32 points and win by 32 points, arguable against the other two Top 3 teams in the conference. Rick Pitino’s unit has shooting woes that can really sink them at times but with Ejiofor and the rest of this talent they can just stick around in these games. We’ll see what version shows up in the final week as they look for season sweeps over Georgetown and Seton Hall.