For the first time in nine years, St. John’s is officially back in the NCAA tournament.
When the brackets were unveiled Sunday evening the Red Storm was made a No. 6 seed in the Southeast Region and will play No. 11 and West Coast Conference champ Gonzaga in the first round. Pittsburgh is the No. 1 seed in the region and if St. John’s wins they will play the winner of BYU-Wofford.
The games will be played Thursday in Denver.
After early-season losses to Atlantic-10 lightweights St. Bonaventure and Fordham, St. John’s reeled off wins over top-15 teams Georgetown, Notre Dame Duke, Connecticut, Pittsburgh and Villanova to pave their way to the Big Dance. But St. John’s chances of making a deep NCAA tournament were dealt a severe blow when they lost D.J. Kennedy to a torn ACL in their 79-73 loss to Syracuse in the Big East tournament quarterfinals. Kennedy was the team’s leading rebounder and was third on the team in points.
“Most importantly our basketball is family is their to rally around D.J. Kennedy,” coach Steve Lavin said on CBS before the selection show. “He’s going to step into role of assistant coach. No one knows team better than D.J. from having played so many games.”
St. John’s may have been a higher seed – perhaps a No. 4 or No. 5 – if not for Kennedy’s injury. Instead, they could be facing Jimmer Fredette and the Cougars in the second round.
“It will play a part (in our seeding),” Lavin said. “But hopefully they will see our team has depth. And sometimes a team can use a fallen comrade as motivation to make a run in the NCAA tournament.”
Sean Evans stepped in for Kennedy, who went down 5 ½ minutes in to the defeat against Syracuse.
“D.J. is a big part of this team, this hurts me because we’re close on and off the court, it’s not many times you see D.J. you don’t see me,” Evans said after scoring 11 points in 36 minutes against the Orange. “So it’s going to be hurtful but I think it’s going to be fuel to the fire and we’re going to have to step up … I’m going to play as hard for D.J. and for my teammates.”
It’s Lavin’s first year coaching a St. John’s team that has nine seniors. That includes Dwight Hardy, who stepped up in mid-season and led the Red Storm on their impressive run against highly-touted teams. Hardy, from The Bronx, finished the season averaging 18 points a game.
The last time St. John’s played in the NCAA tournament, they lost to Wisconsin, 80-70 in a 8-9 game. In the 2000 NCAA tournament, 10th-seeded Gonzaga upset No. 2 St. John’s 82-76 in the second round.
The rest of St. John’s region shapes up like this:
1. Pittsburgh vs. 16. UNC-Asheville/Arkansas Little Rock
8. Butler vs. 9. Old Dominion
4. Wisconsin vs. 13. Belmont
5. Kansas State vs. 12. Utah State
3. BYU vs. 14. Wofford
6. St. John’s vs. 11. Gonzaga
7. UCLA vs. 10. Michigan State
2. Florida vs. 15. UCSB
