NCAA Basketball: St. John's Is Back; Are Their Fans?

You know the saying "When you assume, you make an ass out of u and me?" 

Yesterday I assumed New York's Madison Square Garden, the Mecca of college basketball, would be sold out for St. John's game with No. 4 Pitt.

Here's the scenario: St. John's hasn't been to the NCAA Tournament since 2002 but their storied program is famous.  The Red Storm has been to 27 NCAA Tournaments and have sent 59 players to the NBA.

They're going to the NCAA tournament this year because they're having a magical season. 

Things were pretty bad last season.  The Red Storm finished a dismal 17-16.  After a first-round loss in the NIT, they fired their coach Norm Roberts.

Nobody expected much this season when they brought in Steve Lavin to take over as head coach.

Well, everyone was wrong:  Right now they're tied for fourth in the Big East with a record of 9-5.  They've won six of their last seven games.

Before yesterday St. John's upset four of the country's elite teams (No. 5 Duke, No. 7 Notre Dame, No. 9 Georgetown and No. 12 UConn).

Excitement has been building and now enter the leader of the Big East No. 4 Pitt.  The stage is set!

I assumed the Garden would be sold out.  It was sold out when St. John's hosted Duke for a 12 p.m. game on January 30.

Well, yesterday's noon game was not. 

Frankly, the announced crowd of 14, 514 was disappointing.  I guess the Red Storm needed Duke to sell it out on January 30.

Yesterday's game was St. John's biggest game in at least 10 years and the fans didn't show up.

Did the fan base reach rock bottom over since the time they went to their last NCAA Tournament?  Does it have to be built up again?

The New York Knicks aren't exactly lighting the world on fire, so why haven't the St. John's fans showed up in large numbers?   Only 13,652 for UConn on February 10?

St. John's will pose a huge dilemma for NCAA selection committee

St. John's (17-9, 9-5) is one of the most dangerous teams in the country.  No Big East team wants to meet them in the Big East tournament, which is played at Madison Square Garden, and no team wants to meet them in the NCAA Tournament.

St. John's finishes their regular season with Depaul, at Villanova, at Seton Hall and USF.  They are almost surely going to win two, likely win three, and possibly win the four.  Then they play in the Big East Tournament. 

It's more than possible the Red Storm are going to finish with 20 plus wins, but unless they win in the regular season—and win the Big East Tournament—they'll have 10 or more losses when the NCAA selection committee meets to seed the teams.

How high can you seed a team with 10, 11 or 12 losses?

What if they win the Big East Tournament?  How high can you seed a team with so many losses?

What about Feb 21st coaches poll?

Currently St. John's is not ranked in the coaches poll.  I guess you could say they are in 35th position, as they sit 10 spots behind George Mason in the "others receiving votes" category.  

George Mason has 30 points.  The Red Storm has five.

Every analyst around the country knows how good St. John's is—they've beaten five of the highest-ranked teams in the country.

Critics of the Red Storm say it's great that they've beaten all these top teams but they've done it all at home.

Before Pitt, the Red Storm won at Marquette and at Cincinnati, so that argument is weakened.

But where will they be ranked tomorrow?  If they make it into the top 25, it will have to be one of the biggest jumps at such a late stage of the season we've ever seen.

They present another dilemma.