St. John’s finished as the No. 8 seed in the Big East and will play Georgetown in the first round of the conference tourney.
The Big East Tournament is this week and St. John’s will start it off vs Georgetown on Wednesday night.
It will be the same matchup as it was a week ago when St. John’s hung on to beat their long-time Big East rival, 86-80, at Madison Square Garden, which was their last victory of the regular season.
The two teams will square off again this week with much higher stakes.
Georgetown is reeling, coming in with a five-game losing streak. St. John’s is not coming in with the best of momentums either, losing their last tow games including an 86-75 home loss to the Providence Friars in their season finale.
Both teams are evenly matched and this figures to be another competitive game between these two just like it was the last time they met.
Speaking of which, if St. John’s can come in with the same hunger and execution as they did in their last meeting with the Hoyas, they should pull this one off.
They’ll have most of the fans on their side since it’s at MSG and the backcourt freshmen combination of Shamorie Ponds and Marcus LoVett will create matchup problems for Georgetown as they have done against other opponents all season.
The only way St. John’s will make it to the NCAA tournament is if they win the Big East Tournament. That will definitely be a tough road, especially since St. John’s will next play defending champion and the No. 1 seed in the Big East in Villanova.
But we’ve seen many unexpected moments in Big East tourney play in the past and the fact that it’s at MSG where St. John’s play half of their home games, will definitely play a comfort level for them especially since they’ll have many supporters.
It should be fun and the first game between St. John’s and Georgetown figures to be exciting and a winnable game for the Johnnies.