St. John’s is not trying to play itself into the NCAA Tournament this week at MSG, so there’s no reason to get too nitpicky over Thursday’s win over No. 9 Providence in the top-seeded Red Storm’s first game at this year’s Big East tournament.
At this point, Selection Sunday will be the most important day for Rick Pitino and his rolling squad, when they find out which region they are headed to and how high of a seed they will be after bowing out in the Round of 32 as the No. 2 team in the West one year ago.
(It will be a monumental day, too, for two other hoops programs that are also geographically located on Long Island — LIU out of Brooklyn and Hofstra from Hempstead. The schools finally ended long droughts without NCAA participation under local products Rod Strickland and Speedy Claxton, respectively.)
The Johnnies (26-6) were 9-5 overall following a loss to Providence on Jan. 3, but Thursday’s thrashing of the Friars at the Garden marked their 17th win in 18 games thereafter with a chance to add one more Friday night against Seton Hall in the semis.