After dominating the Big East, St. John’s is headed west.
St. John’s is a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament and will face No. 12 Northern Iowa in San Diego on Friday in the opening round.
The cross-country draw came a day after St. John’s (28-6; 18-2 in conference play) won the Big East Tournament with a 72-52 victory over UConn, bolstering a résumé that already included a regular-season conference championship.
“It’s not ideal traveling to the West Coast, but you deal with it and you just make the best of it,” head coach Rick Pitino said after a Selection Sunday watch party at Carnesecca Arena.
“It’s San Diego; it’s not Alaska. It’s a pretty good city.”
St. John’s landed in an East region brimming with blue-blood programs, including the tournament’s top overall seed in Duke.
UConn is the No. 2 seed in the East, while Michigan State is the No. 3.
And Kansas — where St. John’s star Zuby Ejiofor began his college career — is the region’s No. 4 seed.
“The East is loaded, certainly, but look, we’re excited to be part of this,” Pitino said, adding, “Right now, we’re playing good basketball, and that’s the most important thing.”
If St. John’s beats Northern Iowa, and Kansas defeats No. 13 California Baptist, the Johnnies would face the Jayhawks in the second round.
But the Red Storm’s current focus is Northern Iowa, which went 23-12 and won the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
“Every opponent that you play in the tournament is never gonna be easy,” Ejiofor said. “Our biggest thing is how we prepare each and every day.”
The Panthers boast a ball-control offense that ranked 363rd among Division-I programs — or third-to-last — in adjusted tempo, according to the analytics website KenPom.
Their leading scorer, senior guard Trey Campbell, averages 13.7 points per game. Their defense allows just 61.3 points per game.
But Northern Iowa did not face an opponent from a power conference this season.
“Just by their scores, they play everybody tough,” Pitino said.
“We need to study the film and the personnel. We know nothing about them now except statistics, and statistics don’t always tell the story.”
Pitino said half of his staff believed St. John’s would be a No. 4 seed, but he expected it to be a No. 5 seed.
Behind a mostly new roster, St. John’s struggled during non-conference play, losing ranked matchups to Alabama, Iowa State and Auburn, as well as a neutral-site game against Kentucky.
And the Big East was weaker this season, sending only three teams — No. 8 Villanova is the third — to the NCAA Tournament after earning five bids last year.
The NCAA Tournament’s selection committee uses the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings, which weigh wins and losses based on factors such as strength of opponent and game location.
According to the NET rankings, St. John’s was the No. 15 team in the country. It went 5-5 in Quad 1 games — the highest level of competition — and 11-0 in Quad 2.
But St. John’s finished 9-1 in Quad 3, with the defeat being a home loss to Providence on Jan. 3.
The selection committee pegged the Red Storm as the No. 18 overall seed, meaning another No. 5 seed, Vanderbilt, was ranked ahead of them.
“I don’t think they take into consideration, like the old days, how you’re playing at the end of the year,” Pitino said. “The metrics are [that] each game counts.”
This is the second year in a row St. John’s made the NCAA Tournament, marking the first time since the 1998-99 and 1999-2000 seasons that the program earned back-to-back Big Dance berths.
As a No. 2 seed last year, St. John’s was upset in the second round by Arkansas, and the Johnnies’ shooting struggles loomed large in that game.
But Ejiofor is the only returning starter from that roster. And while St. John’s still relies heavily on its frontcourt and defense, this year’s team features shooters in Oziyah Sellers, Ian Jackson and Joson Sanon whose skill sets could be key this time around.
“I feel like we got some good confidence from the Big East Tournament, obviously having those three wins,” said Sellers, a California native. “I’m excited. I feel like we’re gonna be really locked in this week preparing.”
St. John’s enters the NCAA Tournament as one of the hottest teams in the country, having won six games in a row and 19 of its last 20. The lone loss came against UConn on the road on Feb. 25.
It will look to extend that streak Friday at Viejas Arena, where tip-off is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. EDT.
“It really doesn’t matter where we play,” Ejiofor said, adding, “No matter where we play, we’re going to go out there and compete.”
