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DENVER — For the first time since St. John’s became a team of destiny — a team as feared as any in the country after stunning Duke and Pitt during a six-game win streak — an unsettling notion has threatened to creep into the Red Storm locker room.
Maybe it’s not meant to be.
A team of destiny doesn’t lose its most versatile player in its last game before the NCAA Tournament begins.
A team of destiny doesn’t get sent this far west to face a NCAA Tournament-proven program whose fans consider this little more than a road trip.
A team of destiny doesn’t draw an opponent whose strengths are the poison arrow aimed at the Red Storm’s Achilles’ heel.
Has St. John’s — without D.J. Kennedy (knee), facing a team with a quality big man, in what essentially will be a road game — lost its swag going into its NCAA Tournament opener against Gonzaga?
“If anything, we got more because a team of destiny doesn’t do it easy,” senior forward Sean Evans said. “A team of destiny has to go through adversity as well. I think we’ve been doing that all season. It’s just one more thing to put on the list of things to overcome.”
There is a lot to overcome in this first-round game in the Southeast Region.
Sixth-seed St. John’s (21-11) is considered the home team in this game, but No.11-seed Gonzaga (24-9) sold out just about all of its 500 tickets.
It is a manageable, 16-hour drive from the Zags’ home in Spokane, Wash. And Denver is one of the only cities that offers non-stop flights from Spokane.
“They can cheer as loud as they want or boo us as much as they want,” St. John’s forward Justin Brownlee said. “It’s still a basketball game. No one in the stands is playing.”
One player who is sure to play big for Gonzaga is Robert Sacre, a 7-foot junior center averaging 12.5 blocks, 6.2 boards and almost two blocks. He is an elite-level type of big man that the Red Storm does not typically match up with, unless the 6-foot-8 Justin Burrell mans up.
Since a two-game stretch in which Burrell scored 25 points and grabbed 20 rebounds in wins over Marquette and Pitt, Burrell has scored just 28 points and grabbed 18 rebounds in the last six games.
JB is ready to make foie gras out of Sacre.
“That’s my dream,” Burrell told The Post.
“I want to make plays. I want to score baskets. I want to get defensive stops. I want to block shots. I want to do it all. I want to be the best that I can. To go out there and have a strong game against somebody that big, that’s portrayed as a big-time player, that’s my dream.”
That’s the dream of every one of these St. John’s seniors who came here dreaming of a sky-high moment. It’s here for them in the Mile High City.
“I haven’t seen any indication that this team has let down or stopped doing the things that they have done,” St. John’s coach Steve Lavin said.
“There’s anxiety, and expectation, but there is a steely confidence.”
lenn.robbins@nypost.com