All that big talk in the preseason, all these highly rated recruits, the furious run to dig out of a midseason hole, it’s almost certainly going to equal a second straight NIT berth.
What a letdown.
St. John’s talked confidently about winning the Big East Tournament in recent days and reaching the NCAA Tournament by beating fellow bubble-team Providence. Instead, they slept-walked through most of Thursday’s quarterfinal against the fifth-seeded Friars before staging a furious rally that ultimately fell short.
The result was a hard-to-stomach 79-74 loss that likely sends the Johnnies to that other tournament.
“It hurts a lot — especially with what’s at stake,” junior guard Phil Greene IV said.
It’s hard to imagine St. John’s, with just one win over a top-50 RPI opponent, getting selected to the field of 68, particularly since it finished the year losing three of its last five games, no matter how hard Providence coach Ed Cooley stumped for the Red Storm after his team’s impressive victory.
Afterward, Lavin talked about St. John’s reasons for optimism — its strong finish, 48th-ranked strength of schedule and narrow losses to Creighton and Villanova — and said he didn’t believe the game against Providence was an elimination game from the tournament, as many experts had labeled it. Of course, he also admitted this loss didn’t do his team any favors.
“What I shared with the team is clearly at this stage of the season, it’s in the selection committee’s hands,” Lavin said. “I think, if you look at our body of work and a number of the criteria that they consider, we clearly have some pluses. But losing the first round of your conference tournament is not a good thing when you’re trying to play in the postseason.”
Fourth-seeded St. John’s (20-12) led by seven points with 5:36 left in the first half, but Providence took over from that point, ripping off a 14-4 run to end the half and a 14-4 spurt to start the second, building a 50-37 bulge. Remarkably, the Friars (21-11) got just a single point in that span from star guard Bryce Cotton, who managed 10 points — his lowest scoring output since Feb. 8.
With shot-blocking specialist Chris Obekpa saddled to the bench with foul trouble virtually all afternoon, receiving a scant two minutes of action, St. John’s had no answer for Providence forwards Kadeem Batts and LaDontae Henton, who had their way inside combining for 29 points and 23 rebounds.
St. John’s, meanwhile, shot just 41 percent from the field, made 13-of-26 free throws and were bullied in the paint, out-rebounded 49-44. The Red Storm failed to make the extra pass and settled for suspect jump shots, eschewing the patience displayed in recent victories.
St. John’s trailed by 17 with 6:24 left, before the Johnnies suddenly awoke, going on a 22-6 spurt to get within 69-68 on two D’Angelo Harrison free throws with 1:15 left.
St. John’s had the chance to go ahead, but JaKarr Sampson came up short on a contested layup inside and Cotton and Josh Fortune (24 points) iced it from the free-throw line.
“We weren’t playing St. John’s basketball that we usually play,” said Harrison, who scored a game-high 21 points. “But you saw that, I think, the last six, seven minutes. If we did that the whole game, it would have been a different kind of ballgame. We just waited too late.”
The loss was emblematic of St. John’s season — a slow start and a fast finish. In either case, it looks like it won’t be enough for the Johnnies to reach their lofty expectations.