Bracketology 2024: Arkansas, Michigan State, and St. John's in need of avoiding a bad loss

Hofstra Pride (7-5) vs. St. John's Red Storm (8-4), Saturday, Dec30, 12:00 PM ET, FS1

Rick Pitino’s St. John’s Red Storm is another one of those teams that is on either side of the cut line depending on which bracket you like at. Saturday afternoon’s game against Hofstra will close out their non-conference schedule. The Red Storm (8-4) has a win over Utah on a neutral floor and have just one top-100 NET win since beating the Utes and four of their wins are of the quad 4 variety.

They have a top-75 strength of schedule and their predictive metrics are both in the top 45 like the Red Storm much more than the results metrics that have them in the top-75. They have been decent at both ends of the floor as a top-63 team in both offensive and defensive efficiency, the issue for the Red Storm is that teams they are being compared to have better resumes up to this point.

This game against Hofstra (7-5) will be very important for St. John’s because they have to keep pace with those teams they are being compared to and can’t afford to fall further behind. This game will not be an automatic W because the Pride is very good offensively.

The Pride ranks top-50 in shooting at all three levels, including the 7th-best free throw shooting team in the country. If the Pride takes down their in-state brethren, it might be very difficult for the Red Storm to make the NCAA Tournament outside of a tremendous effort in Big East play.