OMAHA, Neb. — St. John’s is pondering massive.
How massive?
Massive East championship massive.
“The only motivation is we’re trying to win the whole league,” junior wing RJ Luis mentioned on Monday. “We’re trying to win big, we’re trying to go dancing in March.”
It’s usually mentioned, the Johnnies’ main scorer mentioned.
Amongst teammates and coaches.
Coach Rick Pitino isn’t shying away from it.
“Every day. The whole team [talks about it]. We say we need to key in on these games and we can win the league and there’s an opportunity for us to win the league,” Luis mentioned. “As long as we focus in and key in on our details, we’re in good shape against anybody to win the league.”
Then contemplate New 12 months’s Eve’s assembly with Creighton at CHI Well being Heart a big step.
St. John’s has received in Omaha, Neb., simply as soon as in 11 conferences and will enhance to 3-0 in league play for the primary time since 1998-99.
The Bluejays stay one of many league’s prime groups, even when they struggled throughout the nonconference and misplaced prime switch addition Pop Isaacs to season-ending hip surgical procedure.
They personal wins over seventh-ranked Kansas, Notre Dame and Villanova, and have 7-foot-1 dynamo Ryan Kalkbrenner, the Massive East preseason Participant of the 12 months, and lights-out taking pictures level guard Steven Ashworth.
Pitino has repeatedly mentioned he believes the distinction between the highest of the Massive East and the underside is negligible and that successful on the highway will separate the contenders from the pretenders.
Thus far in convention play, the highway groups are 5-6.
The 5 wins haven’t come simple, by a median of three.2 factors.
“If you can win on the road in this conference, you’re going to have a chance of being an upper echelon team,” Pitino mentioned. “It’s going to be very difficult for every team in this conference to win on the road — every team — because there are no more DePauls or Georgetowns of last year. … It’s a lot different this year than last year. If you can ever win 50 percent of your road games, whoever does that, is going to win the conference.”
St. John’s (11-2, 2-0) handed its first step on Dec. 20, rallying from 16-down to win at Windfall for the primary time since 2017.
CHECK OUT THE LATEST BIG EAST STANDINGS AND ST. JOHN’S STATS
This can be an identical problem.
The hope is the Johnnies shoot significantly better than they did towards the Friars, once they missed 15 free throws and went 3-for-18 from 3-point vary.
“This is a game where all five guys have to strongly contribute,” Pitino mentioned. “It’s not going to be one player. To beat Creighton, you’re going to have to have seven, eight guys really play well, because they shoot it so well.”
Regardless of an 11-2 begin that features Massive East wins over DePaul and Windfall, the Johnnies are nonetheless unproven.
They’ve struggled placing collectively full video games, though 9 of their 10 wins have come by 13 factors or extra.
They’ve fallen brief towards their prime two opponents, projected match groups No. 25 Baylor and Georgia, by a mixed 4 factors.
This is a chance to interrupt via towards a top quality workforce in its personal constructing.
It’s the type of recreation that St. John’s might want to win if it actually goes to contend for a convention crown.
“It’s going to take more than just one game,” Luis cautioned, relating to making a press release. “That definitely [would be] a start. Winning another road game is big.”
