St. John's

• ironman02

  St. John's, after knocking off 'Nova on the road today, is 19-9 overall, 11-5 Big East. Pretty impressive that Lavin has them sitting at 3rd in the Big East, with these wins on their overall resume...
  
  Georgetown
  Notre Dame
  Duke
  UConn
  Pitt
  Villanova
  
  They have a couple bad losses like St. Bonaventure and Fordham, but obviously their marquee wins outweigh those. What does everyone think about these guys in the NCAA Tournament? Can they make some noise away from MSG and continue to knock off the big names?
• swamisez

  

  thought i heard that for the BE tournament St.John's has sold all of their allotted tickets, and have snapped up unclaimed tickets from virtually all other schools. They could end up having a nice home court advantage for several games, and as of now are 4th and are in line to avoid a first round game.
• ironman02

  I can definitely see them making a run in the Big East Tournament, especially playing in NYC. That'll be a chance for them to collect a few more big wins in a friendly environment.
  
  I think they're a very dangerous team in the NCAA Tournament due to their athleticism and experience. I also wouldn't be surprised if they got bounced early though. Kinda hope they do well.
• Leonardo

  

  St. John's is heating up at the right time. They started the year 11-8, but have won eight of nine games since, including wins over Duke, Connecticut, Pittsburgh, and at Villanova. They finish out the regular season with a trip to Seton Hall, and a home contest with South Florida, so they should finish the regular season on a eight-game winning streak, and a double bye in the Big East tournament.
• Mulva

  

  I wouldn't count Seton Hall as a win just yet. They don't have a good record, but they've played just about everyone tough at home, losing to Syracuse, Georgetown, UConn, and Nova each by 6 points or less.
• Prescott

  I didn't give St. John's the credit they deserved when they blasted duke. This is a team that I would not want to see in my team's bracket. They have a star in Dwight Hardy(averaging 26.0+ over the last 7 games) and a team that is made up of seniors. Very scary team.
• Ironman92

  

  St John's will ruin many brackets as many of us will take them too far and they'll get knocked out by a 12 or 13 seed.
  
  
  They are very dangerous and can obviously play with anyone....but they just SEEM like that team.
• wildcats20

  

  Ironman92;693687 wrote:St John's will ruin many brackets as many of us will take them too far and they'll get knocked out by a 12 or 13 seed.
  
  
  They are very dangerous and can obviously play with anyone....but they just SEEM like that team.

  
  I agree.
• Ironman92

  

  ....and if they get paired with BYU or Duke as their #1 seed......I'll take them deeper than I should.
• wildcats20

  

  Especially after they make it to the Semi's in the BE tourny.
• reclegend22

  

  I want no part of St. John's beyond Jan. 30.
  
  That's all I really have to say about that.
• athlete37

  

  If they're on, they are the best team in the country. Thing is, that usually only happens at home. Look no further than to their games against Georgetown and ND for example. In the same few days the beat GTown at home, but lost to ND by 15 on the road. A week later they beat ND by 18 at home only to lose at GTown by 25 ten days later.
• athlete37

  

  http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/team/schedule/_/id/2599/st-john-red-storm
  
  Look at their schedule. You'll see that 4 days after that GTown game they spanked Duke at home, only to lose at UCLA a week later. They followed that up by beating UConn at home by 17. The win over Nova is noteworthy and maybe it proves they're for real away from the garden, but Nova's reeling right now (knock on wood with Nova coming to South Bend tomorrow night)
• Laley23

  

  I just know there AD made a great decisions in firing the coach. His reasoning for not waiting another year was that SJU had 10 seniors to be and that the coach was probably going to win with them a decent amount and he wouldnt be able to fire him. But he knew he didnt like the guy, so he fired him lol. Brought in Lavin and gave him the chance to succeed right away and get the program on track.
  
  One of the more underrated moves as a lot of ADs will give the coach a chance to win with that many seniors. Ill say this, Lavin is a good coach, and his days at UCLA prove that. But we will really see if what he is doing at SJU has staying power or not. That team is going to be 100% different next year.
• SportsAndLady

  

  athlete37;694335 wrote:If they're on, they are the best team in the country.

  
  That's outrageous.
• athlete37

  

  Not sure it's outrageous when they've beaten the following RPI's:
  5 by 15 (Duke)
  10 by 18 (ND)
  18 by 10 (@WVU)
  20 by 17 (UConn)
  6 by 1 (Pitt)
  8 by 3 (Georgetown)
  31 by 13 (@Nova)
  and 33 by 2 (@Cincy)
  
  Cincy and WVU are the only two of those that haven't been in the top 10 to my knowledge. When they're on, they will beat anyone in the country. This team has a wide spectrum of ability-- as evidenced by my above post and their losses to Fordham and St. Bonaventure.
• SportsAndLady

  

  Pretty sure when Ohio State, Texas, Kansas, Duke are at their best, they are better than St. Johns at their best.
• athlete37

  

  What are Ohio State, Duke, and Kansas' best? Give me some examples. I foresee the only comeback being OSU romping Purdue and Duke beating Carolina. That's it
• namod65

  

  SportsAndLady;694381 wrote:Pretty sure when Ohio State, Texas, Kansas, Duke are at their best, they are better than St. Johns at their best.

  
  This is true.
• athlete37

  

  Duke's second best win falls probably behind SJ's 5th best. OSU's third best win is better than none of St. John's top 8 wins. And Kansas has only beaten one RPI top 20 team...
• athlete37

  

  Just saying- at the Garden I'll take St. John's over any of those teams if they're playing well, and I'm sure Vegas would see it similar
• namod65

  

  athlete37;694384 wrote:What are Ohio State, Duke, and Kansas' best? Give me some examples. I foresee the only comeback being OSU romping Purdue and Duke beating Carolina. That's it

  
  I will take OSU and Kansas over St. John's any day of the week. Even if they're not playing at "their best," I would still take them.
• athlete37

  

  Care to throw out any support for that? OSU's is 1 for 3 in tough road games, and Kansas has yet to beat a team that will make it to the sweet 16. In the Garden St. John's wins over both teams I would think
• SportsAndLady

  

  athlete37;694384 wrote:What are Ohio State, Duke, and Kansas' best? Give me some examples. I foresee the only comeback being OSU romping Purdue and Duke beating Carolina. That's it

  
  So now you're saying that because St. Johns has more impressive wins than those other teams, they are the best team in the country when they're on?
  
  That's not how it works.
• athlete37

  

  Not ripping OSU by any means, just saying the Garden is a tough place to play this year. Lord knows ND hasn't done jack shit on the road this year outside of the win over Pitt. (Win at Providence is our next best road win LOL)