St. John's grabs No. 2 seed in March Madness, faces Omaha in first round of West Region
St. John's now knows what its road looks like in the NCAA Tournament.
The selection committee on Sunday made the Red Storm (30-4) the No. 2 seed in the West Region. They will begin play against No. 15 Omaha (22-12), the champion of the Summit League, on Thursday in Providence, Rhode Island.
Tip-off is at 9:45 p.m., right here on CBS2.
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If St. John's wins, it will face the winner of the game between No. 7 Kansas and No. 10 Arkansas in the second round on Saturday.
St. John's was 20-13 last season, Rick Pitino's first as head coach, but made a quantum leap this season. If the Red Storm advance to the Sweet 16, they will surpass the school's all-time win total for a season, set during the 1984-85 and 1985-86 seasons, when they went 31-4 and 31-5, respectively.
"Coach P is the mastermind behind all of this," St. John's swingman RJ Luis Jr. said of Pitino, who was named Big East Coach of the Year. "I mean, it's truly special."
Pitino was asked how the Johnnies can keep this memorable season going for the next few weeks.
"Just take care of practice. Get them focused. Get them off social media. Get them focused on practice, on beating the team at hand, and not being concerned about anything except the offenses and defenses necessary to execute to get a victory," Pitino said.
St. John's has advanced to the Final Four twice, 1952 and 1985, but has not won an NCAA Tournament game since 2000, when, also as a No. 2 seed, it defeated Northern Arizona in the first round before losing to Gonzaga. The Red Storm are 0-4 since, mostly recently losing to Arizona State in the First Four in 2019.
How the Red Storm got there
Top-seeded St. John's continued the school's greatest season in 40 years with an 82-66 victory over second-seeded Creighton on Saturday night in the Big East Tournament championship game at Madison Square Garden. Luis, the Big East's Player of the Year, scored 27 of his 29 points in the second half as the Red Storm overcame a slow start to take their first conference tournament title since 2000.
The Red Storm went 18-2 in conference play in winning their first outright Big East regular season title since 1984-85. They have won nine straight games and 19 of their last 20 overall, and their four losses this season have come by a combined seven points.
Along the way, St. John's beat the next three best teams in the Big East -- Creighton, Marquette and two-time defending national champion UConn -- seven times out of eight games, with the lone loss by one point at Creighton on Dec. 31.
Luis, a junior, leads the team in scoring, averaging 18.4 points, followed by junior Zuby Ejiofor with 14.6 and graduate student Kadary Richmond with 12.7 per game. Ejiofor leads with 8.0 rebounds per game and Richmond is averaging a team-high 5.4 assists.
The Red Storm have also done it with defense all season, as they rank among the best teams in the nation in shooting percentage against, rebounding, forced turnovers, and points allowed per game.
"Everybody having the same collective mindset of just doing whatever it takes, which is what we've pretty much done all year. Our identity, which starts on defense," Ejiofor said.
A look at Rick Pitino's legendary college coaching career
Pitino, 72, who was hired by St. John's on March 20, 2023, has taken three different schools to the Final Four, including winning championships with Kentucky in 1996 and Louisville in 2013. He remains the only coach to win national titles at two different schools.
With his success this season at St. John's, Pitino has now taken a record six different schools to the NCAA Tournament, including Boston University (1983), Providence (1987 Final Four) and Iona (2021).
Overall, Pitino, who also coached in the NBA with the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics, and with Panathinaikos B.C. of the EuroLeague, has won 71% of his college games, compiling a record of 761-307.
