Johnnies' Tournament Status in Doubt as March Nears

Image credit: Diana Colapietro

The St. John’s men’s basketball team had its destiny in the palm of its hand on Sunday when it hosted No. 20 Pittsburgh at Madison Square Garden. A win against the Panthers would force pundits across the college basketball world to give serious consideration to the Red Storm when discussing the field of 68 teams for this year’s NCAA Tournament. ESPN’s revered bracketologist, Joe Lunardi, even went as far to tweet to a fan that a win against Pitt would ‘probably’ move the Johnnies into his tournament bracket.

However, by the time the second half clock struck zero on Sunday, Steve Lavin’s team was left ruing a missed opportunity of notching an RPI-boosting win under its belt, losing 63-47. To add salt to the team’s fresh wounds, Lavin noted during the postgame press conference that Pitt scored 17 points off of 12 Red Storm turnovers.

Now, with a 16-11 record, Lavin and co. have three regular season games remaining until the Big East tournament, which begins on March 12. They have a two-game road trip where they’ll make stops in Rhode Island and South Bend, Indiana to take on Providence and Notre Dame, respectively, before capping off their season with a home game against Marquette at the Garden.

Since 1982, Big East teams who finished with 18 wins before the conference tournament received bids to the NCAA Tournament 85 percent of the time. Considering this, it’s widely believed that if the Red Storm fail to pick up two wins in their final three games, it won’t be celebrating a tournament birth come Selection Sunday.

Image credit: Diana Colapietro

As the Johnnies prepare for the home stretch of its 2012/13 regular season, the Red Storm faithful will be counting on sophomore D’Angelo Harrison to lead the team to some late-season glory. The Missouri City, Texas native is averaging nearly 18 points per game – which ranks third in the Big East – and will be counted on to provide an offensive spark as the season nears to a close.

You can catch the Johnnies next game at Providence on Sat. March 2 at 8 p.m.