St. John’s has played its way into the NCAA Tournament picture. It has beaten a ranked opponent (Creighton), won at Seton Hall for the first time in 16 years and is creeping up the Big East standings, within two games in the loss column of Xavier for third place.
All is right in Queens these days, except for this: Georgetown is next. Cue the ominous music.
The Johnnies will face their long-time tormentors Sunday night at Madison Square Garden, the team that “embarrassed” them — JaKarr Sampson’s way of describing the Jan. 4 matchup. The Hoyas led by 30 points in the first half in Washington last month and have won all five meetings by at least double figures over this current group of Red Storm players.
St. John’s (16-9, 6-6) would like nothing more than to snap that skid at the Garden, in a showdown between hot teams on the NCAA Tournament bubble, extend their current streak and improve their chances of reaching the Field of 68.
“It’s a payback game, they killed us the first time,” junior forward Sir’Dominic Pointer said. “This is one of the teams, like I’ve said, in the Big East I just don’t like. I’m going to keep saying it.
“It’s just natural to me. I walked in and I didn’t like them. They’re a bunch of dirty guys — they’re legal dirty guys, but they’re dirty. … They do stuff on the sly you won’t pick up. You cut through the lane, they hit you. I like that stuff, but I don’t like them at all.”
Sampson described Georgetown’s physical play as “aggressive” and said St. John’s has to match it. Leading scorer D’Angelo Harrison, who is averaging just 8.4 points in five career games against the Hoyas, summed up his feelings this way:
“I haven’t beat them, so …
“We keep on saying [we’re on] one-game winning streaks. They’re in our way. They’re next. Time to get this won and move on.”
However, St. John’s looks back fondly at the first matchup. Steve Lavin has pointed to that humbling afternoon as when this turnaround began, the ugly loss serving as a wake-up call for his team. The Red Storm lost their next three games, but they were winnable contests decided by seven points or fewer, and they have won seven of their past eight, four straight in the Big East, to climb out the mammoth hole they created with an 0-5 start in conference play.
“The beating they put on us kind of started this whole run,” Sampson said. “It snapped us out of La La land.”
St. John’s will find out how far it has come Sunday night.
“We’re ready,” Pointer said. “Like I said, we’re a completely different team than we were back then. We’re going to go out tomorrow and play our hardest. If they beat us, they beat us, but it’s not going to because they played harder than us, it’s not going to be because they punked us.
“I feel we’re going to go out there and get our win.”
Guard Jamal Branch, who missed Thursday’s victory at Seton Hall after undergoing oral surgery, is expected to return despite having a tooth extracted on Saturday. … Walk-on Khadim Ndiaye (flu-like symptoms), who surprisingly started in the first Georgetown game has received just two minutes of action since and will be unavailable.