After a blowout 79-57 loss to Georgetown at the Verizon Center on Tuesday, the fate of St. John’s NCAA Tournament hopes are tied to an upcoming three-game homestand against Seton Hall, Xavier and Georgetown.
The loss snapped a three-game winning streak and dropped the Red Storm to 17-9, 6-7 in the Big East. Entering the day, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi had the Johnnies as a 10 seed in the NCAAs.
“We have to turn our energies to Seton Hall and the upcoming three game homestand,” St. John’s coach Steve Lavin said of Saturday’s game at Carnesecca Arena. “We are banged up and hopefully over the next couple days we can get D’Angelo [Harrison] and Chris Obekpa closer to full strength. We are going to have our hands full on Saturday against a dangerous Seton Hall team.”
The Pirates (15-9, 5-9) will be without junior guard Sterling Gibbs, serving a two-game suspension for hitting Ryan Arcidiacono in the head during Monday’s loss to Villanova. Seton Hall was already without sophomore guard Jaren Sina, who announced he was transferring. The Pirates have lost eight of 10.
Following the homestand, the Johnnies close the season on the road at Marquette and No. 6 Villanova.
St. John’s needs to go 3-2 in those five games to finish 9-9 in the league and would have to go 4-1 to finish above .500 in the Big East at 10-8.
