Sun 3/2, DePaul (3-13) at St John's (8-8), 12pm CBS-SN.

[stever20]

St John's if they win the next 2 but then lose in the SF- 21-12.... The projected RPI is still only 57.9. I'm sorry but that's fringe bubble at best. Right now, they are 5-9 vs the RPI top 100(and would be 7-10 with a SF BET loss). You can act like that fact doesn't matter but it really does. You say they're 9-8 in the Big East. 5 of those 9 wins are vs Seton Hall, DePaul, and Butler- went 5-1 vs those teams- but then only 4-7 vs the other 6.

Also St John's SOS is not 25th now after today(don't think they ever were that high- RPI forecast had their current SOS entering today as 33). Warren Nolan has them at #46. Yes, playing DePaul can hurt you that much.

Also a major point. It is a field of 68, but really for us a field of 48ish. The other 20 are the auto 1 team bids.

Finally- top 50 does matter. The committee doesn't get records broken down top 53 or top 54. It's top 50. I suppose if someone was #51 they may say something. But just looking at things, don't think the others are going to be in that 51-53 spot even.

You are really splitting hairs now. You can't take a winning Big East record and make that negative in any way. You must be joking. 5 of those 9 wins are vs. this team or that team. Blah blah. What do you think happens? Better teams feed off the bad teams and get fat. How many of the Cuse/UNC/Duke wins came vs. GT, VT, Miami, ND, etc? How many of the Florida/Kentucky wins came vs. pathetic teams? A ton. How many of the Wichita State wins came against subpar teams? Almost all if not every single one.

The committee doesn't only look at top 50 wins. They look at top 100 as well and that's what you leave out because SJ has a decent enough record there. If you really want to be technical, SJ really only has 1 bad loss all year: DePaul. Our worst loss is still against a major conference opponent. A lot of other teams can't say that. We avoided our typical Northeastern, Niagara, Asheville upset this season. Penn State is a damn solid team if anyone's watched them. They beat Ohio State and nearly took down Wisconsin. They are not a joke anymore. I think the G'Town blowout is also not being granted. Even in a down year, it's still G'Town...they are still very tough and we throttled them. We handily beat Marquette, beat a very fiesty PC team that very well make the tourney, beat #12 Creighton who throttled Nova twice, etc. Just because these teams are not ranked does NOT mean they aren't good wins. That's something many of you are ignoring.

Really the only major dent in our resume is the beginning of the season when we went 0-5 and included a loss to DePaul, PSU, etc.

Top 100 right now they are 5-9. That's not a decent enough record.

vs RPI top 100
these were our last 4/1st 4
Arkansas 8-8
Tennessee 7-9
Oregon 8-7
California 6-9

Providence 7-9
Nebraska 6-8
Missouri 8-8
Florida St 5-10

next 4 out
St John's 5-9
Dayton 7-6
LSU 5-8
Georgetown 6-9

St John's has the fewest wins with FSU and LSU of anyone on this list.

Really, St John's argument is the way they're playing now. That's it. Really nothing else is a plus for them.

[Bill Marsh]

St John's if they win the next 2 but then lose in the SF- 21-12.... The projected RPI is still only 57.9. I'm sorry but that's fringe bubble at best. Right now, they are 5-9 vs the RPI top 100(and would be 7-10 with a SF BET loss). You can act like that fact doesn't matter but it really does. You say they're 9-8 in the Big East. 5 of those 9 wins are vs Seton Hall, DePaul, and Butler- went 5-1 vs those teams- but then only 4-7 vs the other 6.

So, I guess what St. John's has to do is win through the tournament and get to the BE finals. Simple. Problem solved.

I really think winning vs. Marquette plus 1 BET game gives them a good chance of getting in. Getting to the finals and lock it up.

But as I've said, in no way do I expect us to make the tourney after all the heartbreak this program has dealt its fans for so long. This team just isn't used to going to the tourney and it shows. I think we lack the killer instinct to take the games opponents try to give us like Nova, PC, etc. Plus we needed to beat Xavier at home. We had to. With our backs up against the wall we put up a dud even though Obekpa was hurt we had the players to do it.

If we beat Marquette and take at least 1 in the BET it will come down to this: will the committee allow the 0-5 start to keep SJ out? Or will they look at the more recent schedule and all the top 10 teams we played right along with all game? Something tells me they care more how you finish than months ago how you started. Our job is to put ourselves in the position to be selected. I will be shocked if we win our next 2.

St. John's just needs to take care of business in the BE tournament. They have home court advantage there. They're sleeping in their own beds and don't have to travel. They've got to make that stuff matter. No one else has that advantage in the BE tourney; they just need to capitalize on it.