St. John’s sneaks into NCAA Tournament

Well it wasn’t easy or pretty for that matter, but the St. John’s Red Storm are finally dancing again.  Thanks to a slow but steady recruiting process by Chris Mullin over the past few years and the magic of Shamorie Ponds, the Johnnies did just enough over the season to make it.  According to NCAA Tournament committee chair Bernard Muir, they were literally the last team to make it.

St. John’s were almost a lock to be an at-large bid earlier in the season, but the combination of bid stealers (Oregon, St. Mary’s and Saint Louis) and five losses in their last eight games put the Johnnies on the brink of missing the tournament.  However, despite an 86-54 drubbing at the hands of Marquette in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament, their two previous wins over the Golden Eagles and their win over Villanova gave them enough juice to deserve the bid.

St. John’s will be playing in one of Wednesday’s play-in games.  A full preview will come on Wednesday, but they have a tough test against a battle tested Arizona State team, headed by former Buffalo coach Bobby Hurley.  The winner of that game will face six-seed Buffalo in the first round in Tulsa, OK.