It’s the same night. It’s the same round. But that’s the only similarity between this year’s Big East Tournament opener and the past three for St. John’s.
There was no pressure attached to playing the outbracket game during coach Chris Mullin’s first three years. There couldn’t possibly be any more urgency Wednesday night. A win would ensure the first NCAA Tournament bid of the Mullin era. A loss could complete a collapse and send the seventh-seeded Red Storm to the NIT, an unthinkable proposition a few weeks ago, when a single-digit NCAA seed seemed likely.
“It’s definitely not a spot we wanted to be in, but it’s the cards we were dealt — the cards we dealt ourselves,” senior forward Marvin Clark II said Tuesday following a practice at Baruch College as the Red Storm prepared to face No. 10 DePaul on Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. “I believe this team is built for this, built for March. We got to lay it all out on the line. This is really going to dictate where we stand.”
St. John’s (20-11) enters the league tournament on a major skid, having lost three straight games and four of five to finish under .500 in the Big East for the fourth straight season. The four defeats have come by a combined 52 points. Now, complicating matters, Mullin is dealing with the death of his beloved older brother, Roddy, who was buried on Tuesday after a long battle with cancer.
Mullin hasn’t talked to the team much about his brother’s passing, preferring to have his players focus on the game. But Clark said the team needs to have it on its mind. It should serve as motivation, to give their coach a victory in his time of need.
“It just really puts things in perspective. At the end of the day, this is a game, this is basketball. We really need to appreciate being able to play this game and be here today,” Clark said. “If it doesn’t help [us on Wednesday], you don’t need to be playing. If you can’t really get behind what coach is going through right now, play your hardest for him, you don’t need to have on a St. John’s jersey.”
Junior guard Shamorie Ponds said: “Very sad. Coach said his brother was his hero. We’re going to try to pick him up.”
Playing with emotion will be essential. That has been missing during this poor stretch. Ponds said there have been times players have been “going through the motions,” and pointed at himself as one of the culprits. Junior Mustapha Heron, Ponds and Clark all said they need to play faster, especially against DePaul, which swept the season series. The league’s big teams have given the undersized Johnnies problems. The Red Storm haven’t exposed the mismatches nearly enough on the other end of the floor.
“We got to play fast from the jump. No matter if they dunk, we got to get it out and go,” Clark said. “That’s where our matchup [advantage] is. We have to run them into the ground.”
As disappointing as the end of the regular season forcing them to play on the opening night of the Big East Tournament, it sure beats the position St. John’s found itself in each of the past three years. The Johnnies’ only path to dancing was winning the conference tourney. One victory this time will do the trick.
“We have an opportunity,” Ponds said. “We got to take advantage.”
Sophomore forward Sedee Keita practiced Tuesday and is expected to be active for the game after not making the trip to Xavier on Saturday for disciplinary reasons.
