Welcome to The Holy Land of Hoops

The first of 2 games on Sunday in the Big East.

DePaul at St John's, 12 noon, CBS-SN.

St John's can guarantee at least a .500 season by beating DePaul.
SJU still has a great RPI of around 60, and a win today and at Marquette can get them going on another run (heading into the BET). Of course they play great at MSG and can easily make noise there in the BET. Definitely SJU still has a legit shot at the NCAAs. Gotta win tomorrow though.

The Blue Demons beat SJU in OT in January in Rosemont, and won their last game vs Seton Hall to move up to 9th.

SJ to be without star freshman PG Jordan as he still grieves.

I swear there is a hex on this team. There has to be. 3 straight seasons where key players either get hurt, suspended, or miss games due to personal reasons right in the thick of things before NCAA's? Jesus Christ. The New York Mets of college hoops. Win or lose we are not making the tourney. I hope we at least get put down easily vs. Marquette so this team can't falsely get our hopes up again. I'd rather go into the BET knowing we likely have no shot and losing than going in expecting to make noise and being duds again. This season has been a story of 1 collapse, then a huge winning streak, only to end in another collapse. That's SJ basketball folks. Winning sometimes, but never too much!

Harrison's suspension last season cost them a spot I think.

This year, SJU can still get a bid. Beat DePaul, Marquette, then get to the semis of the BET, and they'll totally be in the conversation. Win in the semis and SJU is in. Just got to play angry and relentless like during the winning streak.

Not having Jordan is bad break, especially given the circumstances, but it's no excuse to lose to DePaul at home with NCAA birth on the line. If St. John's is a tourney team they win this regardless, no matter if it's by 1 or 20.

billyjack wrote:Harrison's suspension last season cost them a spot I think.

This year, SJU can still get a bid. Beat DePaul, Marquette, then get to the semis of the BET, and they'll totally be in the conversation. Win in the semis and SJU is in. Just got to play angry and relentless like during the winning streak.

Agree. I actually think they can make it even if they lose to Marquette, but it would take a win over Villanova, something which they're entirely capable of in the Garden.

St. John's issue is that they have only 1 Top 50 win to date. After beating DePaul and Marquette, they will still have only one Top 50 win. So a win over Villanova or Creighton in the Big Fox tourney is a must. Getting to the quarters along won't do it. Winning in the quarters is what St John's must do to stay on the bubble.

HoosierPal wrote:St. John's issue is that they have only 1 Top 50 win to date. After beating DePaul and Marquette, they will still have only one Top 50 win. So a win over Villanova or Creighton in the Big Fox tourney is a must. Getting to the quarters along won't do it. Winning in the quarters is what St John's must do to stay on the bubble.

St. John's isn't unique in that regard. Toledo doesn't have any. Pitt andSouthern Miss each has only one. Gonzaga and St. Mary's each has only two.

SJU putting the beatdown on DePaul. Doesn't help but would have hurt ALOT. @Marquette I think is a must win if they want to get an at-large.

HoosierPal wrote:St. John's issue is that they have only 1 Top 50 win to date. After beating DePaul and Marquette, they will still have only one Top 50 win. So a win over Villanova or Creighton in the Big Fox tourney is a must. Getting to the quarters along won't do it. Winning in the quarters is what St John's must do to stay on the bubble.

Shut up with that same old crap. No team is perfect. Look at the rest of the bubble. No one is Duke. Top 50 wins is ONE stat. You are missing like 9 others. You conveniently ignore a top 25 SOS among others. All SJ needs to do is beat DePaul and Marquette then win 1 in the tourney. Stop acting like you have to go undefeated just to be on the bubble. With a win today it's 19 wins 9-8 in conference. 21 wins is the magic number. The NCAA tourney is not a place where teams without scars play. You have to be good, not great to play in it. You can find a bad stat by every team in the nation if you look close enough.

And by the way, SJ looks like it can very well lose this game. Up by 20 one second and DEPAUL of all teams on our home court looks like Duke late in the game. I lost count of how many times SJ players had their pockets picked en route to a fast break layup or a backdoor dunk. Is there a worse fast break team in the nation than SJ? It can be 3 on 1 and they get way too excited and somehow a player coughs it up, travels, passes to the wrong player, or passes it back out to allow the opponent's defense to settle again losing the advantage.

Again it goes back to Jordan. If Jordan was playing this never would have happened. He would be penetrating at will and getting plenty of steals. God I hate this program. I really do. Why do I even root for these guys? They will never be Xavier or Nova and guarantee tourney bids to let their fans rest easy. Never. Always has to be gut wrenching, game by game, anxiety-ridden collapses just hoping to hold on. This team has 1 year left from me. After that if nothing changes I'm finished.

Why is Sampson not playing? He's been on the bench for a while.