St. John’s isn’t losing its focus with first March madness task awaiting

SAN DIEGO — Some are looking back to St. John’s NCAA Tournament seeding and the slights that were dealt to the Big East regular-season and postseason champions. 

Others are looking forward, projecting Rick Pitino’s Red Storm as a Final Four sleeper. 

Pitino and his players don’t fall into either category. For nine weeks now, St. John’s has played with a next-game mindset, a determination to take care of the business in front of them after the shaky nonconference season. 

Friday night’s East Region opener is the same mindset. Twelfth-seeded Northern Iowa is in the Johnnies’ way of advancing, and the Panthers have their complete attention. 

“We’ve treated every game this year like a tournament game,” Dillon Mitchell said Thursday. “Obviously it’s a little bit different now. You lose a game now, you’re going home. But that’s just the type of mindset that we’ve had throughout the season — treating every game like a tournament game and going out there to get that win.” 

Since Jan. 3, St. John’s has won 19 of 20 games, the lone hiccup an ugly 32-point loss at Connecticut.

The Red Storm (28-6) didn’t trail for the entirety of the Big East Tournament, highlighted by that 20-point beatdown of Connecticut. 

St. John’s was expected to be a No. 4 seed after that, possibly snag the last No. 3. Instead, they were given a 5 seed, and sent all the way to San Diego. Pitino laughed at the notion this was some indignity, or could provide extra motivation. 

“We know we have to play so hard to beat Northern Iowa,” Pitino said. “And because we’re a 5 seed in San Diego, overlooking the ocean, we’re not going to play any harder than any game this season.” 

As far as the seeding goes, the Hall of Fame coach said: “First of all, we’re a 5 seed because the Big East is not regarded the way they used to be when I was at Louisville. So that’s the problem.” 

Northern Iowa (23-12) could be a tricky opponent, the nation’s leader in fewest points allowed (61.3). The Panthers finished sixth in the Missouri Valley Conference and won the league’s postseason tournament.

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They play at one of the county’s slowest paces, and run the pack-line defense that is intended to prevent the opposition from getting in the paint. Their coach, Ben Jacobson, has been there since 2006, and his teams have pulled off two major upsets, beating Texas in 2016 and Kansas in 2010. 

“I have coached against this coach two different times, and we were life and death to beat them both times,” Pitino said, referring to prior matchups when he was at Louisville. 

Really, the only thing missing the last two years for St. John’s is a long March Madness run.

A year ago, the Johnnies equaled a program record with 31 wins, but were upset in the second round by 10th-seeded Arkansas. After a slow start, this group matched the previous team by winning both the Big East regular-season and postseason titles. 

Already, one No. 5 seed has gone down, Wisconsin falling to No. 12 High Point on Thursday. St. John’s isn’t planning on joining the Badgers. They aren’t ready for this memorable journey to end, especially seniors Mitchell, Zuby Ejiofor, Bryce Hopkins and Oziyah Sellers. 

“It’s my last go-around here. It is for not only me, but for like half the team, honestly,” Ejiofor said. “So we have an opportunity to make something special out of this year. Obviously, we already did some exciting things in the regular season and in the Big East Tournament. But now we can just put all that in the past and really focus in on making a run. 

“It’s six games,” he added, “one game at a time.”