NCAA Basketball: Teams who must win one or more games in their conference tournament to make March Madness.

Providence Friars

To Kim English’s credit, Providence has played about as well as they could have after Bryce Hopkins suffered a season-ending injury in early January. Standing at 19-12 (10-10), the Friars own five Q1 wins but the issue lies in the high volume of Q4 games played where ten of Providence’s 19 wins are in the Q4 category, hence why the Friars have low predictive metrics such as a KenPom ranking of 61 and a NET ranking of 64. Heading into the Big East Tournament, Providence will take on their former coach once again, Ed Cooley, followed by a matchup against Creighton. The Friars will, ideally, need both.

St. John's Red Storm

After Rick Pitino’s infamous rant three weeks ago, calling this year the “most unenjoyable experience of my lifetime,” his Red Storm have rattled off five straight wins -- all of which were do-or-die scenarios for the Red Storm. Although three of the five games were against Georgetown (x2) and DePaul, St. John’s did everything they needed to do -- which was to win five straight. A massive opportunity awaits with a matchup against Seton Hall in the Big East quarterfinals on Thursday with a potential matchup against UConn on Friday. An early, winless exit in the Big East tournament could spell difficulty for the Red Storm’s at-large chances considering their poor resume average.