St. John's worthy of a high seed in NCAA Tournament after signature win over Marquette

St. John's Red Storm head coach Rick Pitino coaches against the Marquette Golden Eagles during the first half at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday. Credit: Brad Penner
If there were any doubts or questions about St. John’s being a legitimate force in college basketball this season, there aren’t any more.
Even after the Red Storm had piled up 19 wins, climbed to sole possession of first place in the Big East and ascended to a No. 12 ranking, one thing was missing: a signature win. Well now they have one after prevailing in a hotly-contested matchup with 11th-ranked Marquette, 70-64, before a raucous crowd of 16,521 at the Garden in the biggest regular-season game the program has played in more than a quarter century, since they were No. 9 and lost to top-ranked Connecticut on Jan. 30, 1999.
St. John’s may have flaws – the Red Storm missed 13 three-pointers and 14 free throws – but just as it has been doing all season, it showed that with taut defense and voracious rebounding, those flaws don’t have to be fatal.
Witness outrebounding the Golden Eagles 50-28, holding them to 29% shooting in the second half including 0-for-7 in the final five minutes and delivering seven clutch free throws in eight attempts in the final 3:10.
“This is a very unique team – they just defy all statistical data almost every single game,” coach Rick Pitino said. “Their effort level, though, is so incredibly high. It's been a long time since I've seen something like this effort level . . . It’s a hell of a basketball team that just plays so hard – so hard.”
“You can't make all the shots, but you could definitely bring the energy and the hustle and the defense,” said RJ Luis Jr., who had 17 points, 11 rebounds and four steals. “I think we’re having a great season and we have a lot to accomplish yet and the guys are hungry and we’re going to go after it. We don’t like to lose.”
St. John’s (20-3, 11-1) still has eight games left on the schedule and the Big East Tournament before Selection Sunday, but if it can stay the gritty group that clawed its way to finding a victory as it did Tuesday against the Golden Eagles, there’s no reason to think it’s not capable of securing a top four seeding in one of the NCAA Tournament regions.
“They keep getting better,” Pitino said. “I think here, the whole is better than the sum of the parts, most of the time, because of their defense. . . . We’ve got outstanding talent. It's different talent (but) it's outstanding,”
Up until Tuesday night, St. John’s best win – and their only Quad I victory – was last month’s 82-72 win over Xavier in Cincinnati. And because the Big East teams fared poorly in the non-conference segment of the season, there aren’t that many opportunities on a conference schedule to earn a signature win. In fact, St. John’s only game against a nationally-ranked foe was the double-overtime loss to then-No. 13 (and now unranked) Baylor in the Bahamas.
And the absence of a signature clearly stuck in some minds. While the Red Storm appeared on the ballots of all 62 AP poll voters, 31 of them had St. John’s ranked No. 13 or worse.
And the so-called "experts" who project the tournament field? According to Bracketmartix.com, St. John’s is in the field in all 91 sites they are tracking, but most had them as a No. 5 or No. 6 seeding in one of the four regions. Marquette, on the other hand, has been projected as a No. 2 or No. 3 seed by most because it already had won five Quad I games including victories over three nationally-ranked teams: No. 7 Purdue, No. 18 Maryland and No. 21 Wisconsin.
Minds may change because of this result.
Marquette coach Shaka Smart sounded convinced when he said, “There's so many different factors that go into winning and . . . shooting is one that people pay a lot of attention to because it's so obvious. But if there's 50 of those factors, and shooting is one of them, they're really good at the other 49. They do a terrific job of playing to their strengths. . . . Coach Pitino has a group that is incredibly bought in, incredibly unselfish.”
St. John’s plays the toughest schedule of any Big East team down the stretch. This was the first of three straight opportunities for a Quad I win to be followed by road game at No. 19 Connecticut on Friday and next Wednesday at Villanova. And down the road lay a home game with Creighton and a road matchup with the Golden Eagles.
A true signature win is in hand now, and the Red Storm will be a force to be reckoned with.