By Pete Janny
St. John’s Further Cements Themselves As March Darkhorse
Top-seeded St. John’s posted an 85-71 victory over 9-seeded Providence in the first leg of their title defense. It was all hands on deck for the Johnnies, who crashed the glass with authority and got the better of the Friars in transition.
St. John’s led 48-27 at halftime, capitalizing on a lack of concentration for Providence in getting back in transition. The defensive end clearly wasn’t a strength for Providence this season, and losing Oswin Erhumswunse to two fouls early didn’t help. St. John’s inside presence was too much to handle en route to a plus-21 advantage on the boards and 46 points in the paint.
Zuby Ejiofor made all the right reads in this one and showed why Wednesday’s major conference announcements were no fluke. Ejiofor was halfway toward a double-double not even 12 minutes in, and 11 points from Bryce Hopkins in the first half was more than enough as the Johnnies played bully ball.
Stefan Vaaks’ freshman campaign came to an end with 23 points on five more threes. After the freshman stud helped Providence dig itself out of a 15-point deficit in the first half on Wednesday, the St. John’s defense contained him early and dared other Friars to step up. The trio of Vaaks, Jaylin Sellers, and Ryan Pela still combined for 60, but the two main focuses for St. John’s were not letting the Friars get out in transition and beat them from three. A day after hitting 14 threes, Providence was limited to 5/14 from deep on Thursday.
“We played awesome defense tonight, especially the first half, which was as good as we played all year,” said St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino.
Ian Jackson was steady off the bench for the Red Storm with 14 points in 19 minutes. He remains a necessary spark for St. John’s off the bench and adds another dimension athletically to an already physically gifted team. St. John’s is at their best with Jackson and Dillon Mitchell running and gunning while Hopkins and Ejiofor look to set the tone inside.
On Friday at 5:30 p.m., St. John’s will face a far stiffer offensive test against Seton Hall, as opposed to KenPom’s 177th-ranked defense it faced on Wednesday. According to Bracketeer’s Rocco Miller, St. John’s likely sits on the 4 or 5-Seed line if they can cut down the nets at MSG on Saturday night.
Seton Hall Keeps Bid Hopes Alive
Seton Hall’s NCAA Tournament hopes may be hanging by a thread, although they did live to see another day after defeating 5-seeded Creighton, 72-61.
Leading Creighton 33-26 at halftime, Seton Hall needed to overcome a 14-4 Bluejays run early in the second half that saw Greg McDermott’s team take a 40-37 lead with 14:56 left. However, few Big East teams can turn defense into offense like the Pirates can. With Seton Hall guarding for their lives in the second half, the offense was able to find its groove behind 16 surprise points from Dar, while Budd Clark ran the show and got to the rim with ease. Additionally, the Pirates were able to add 20 free throws on 26 attempts—with every one mattering in a win-or-go-home game.
The offensive execution for the Pirates was surgical for sustained stretches, as Creighton didn’t have the quickness to keep Seton Hall’s best athletes out of the lane. The memorable performance from the Rice transfer Dar included hitting a pair of threes, which were only his fifth and sixth of the season. If the Pirates can take home the title in less than two days, Dar’s quarterfinal performance against Creighton will live in the annals of the Seton Hall program.
On Thursday, the Seton Hall fans were treated to a couple of alley oops that rightfully got them fired up. Oftentimes, Clark was the man responsible for those, including linking up with Dar on a pretty feed that made it a 10-point game with just under two minutes remaining.
“People counted out Budd because he’s small,” said Seton Hall head coach Shaheen Holloway. “He has things you can’t teach.”
Despite a ton of flaws across many bubble teams, Seton Hall is still one team that needs to do more than less to get in, which, in this case, translates to winning the Big East to earn the auto-bid. There is no clear path to an at-large, according to Bracketeer’s Rocco Miller.
#4 Seton Hall will look to stay alive when it faces #1 St. John’s tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. ET.
For now, UConn Meets Eye Test As Top Seed
UConn or Florida is the common debate among many for the first seed. On Thursday evening, the Huskies kept that thought alive with a 93-68 wire-to-wire blowout victory over #10 Xavier.
The Huskies moved the ball effectively to find the open man, leading to productive target practice from all over the floor. At the Under-8 media timeout, the Huskies led 31-18, as Tarris Reed Jr. further extended his dominance in the paint while the guards were superb.
UConn led 50-30 at halftime, and set the tone with a +11 rebounding margin in the first half. UConn’s biggest lead was 25, which ultimately became the final margin in this one. In the postgame presser, Xavier head coach Richard Pitino highlighted the poor match-up this game was for Xavier, who lost to UConn by 32 back in February.
This was “bulletproof basketball” for UConn in every sense of Dan Hurley’s definition. The Huskies defended, rebounded, and scored from all over to move one game closer to winning the Big East Tournament Championship and putting the nightmare at Marquette behind them for good.
The Huskies will get one last chance at a Quad 1 victory if they meet St. John’s in the title game, potentially setting themselves up with even greater merits on Selection Sunday. First, it must withstand a hot Georgetown team when both teams meet in the semifinals at 8 p.m. on Friday.
“Don’t forget who we are,” Hurley said after the game. “We’re a top 5 team in the country. We just haven’t had anything to show for it yet.”
Georgetown Flirting With The Unthinkable; Villanova Still Okay To Dance
Even to put themselves in position to be in a position to win a Big East Championship is an incredible achievement for #11 Georgetown. The Hoyas are standing proud after eliminating #3 Villanova from the Big East Tournament in the last quarterfinals match-up on Thursday. Shades of Patrick Ewing’s magical run?
Backed by a strong contingent of fans at MSG, the Hoyas used a 10-2 run in the second half to take command of the proceedings, leading 61-51 at the Under-8. Georgetown kept its foot on the gas from there and walked away with 46 points combined from Julius Halaifonua, Malik Mack, and Kayvaun Mulready.
Mulready, for one, looks like a whole new player for a Georgetown team peaking at the right time. After testing the portal last offseason only to return, Mulready (14 points on 3/3 shooting from deep) channeled a killer instinct during a personal 8-0 run that included back-to-back threes from right around the same spot on the wing. Georgetown led 67-53 with 5:32 left.
Halaifonua (21 points, 10 rebounds) picked up the torch from Vince Iwuchukwu, who was the hero in Wednesday night’s game against DePaul. The 21 points for Halaifonua were his most since posting the same amount in the Big East opener at Marquette in December.
The main difference in this game was rebounding, as the reckless abandonment of a Hoyas team with nothing to lose posted a 42-19 advantage on the boards. Duke Brennan and the Wildcats were simply outmanned in that fight.
The Hoyas’ defensive stylings these last two games rendered an average scoring defense of 60-points-per game. That intensity has been apparent all the way from the start to the end, with Georgetown's five players checking in, and could be a differentiator for Georgetown when it faces UConn on Friday at 8 p.m. Ed Cooley’s team played UConn tight in the first two meetings, losing by a combined six points without anything material to show for it. Entering Friday, no prize has been won yet, but a real belief still emanates from the Georgetown locker room that cannot be denied. It all starts with their head coach.
“People have talked about how long it’s been since an 11 seed has made the semifinals. We’re here, we’re present, and we’ll see how far we can go from there.”