PROVIDENCE, R.I. — It has been 10 long years since St. John’s last prepared for an evening like this, for an NCAA Tournament main draw game.
You have to go back much further — 25 years — for the last time the Johnnies advanced in March Madness.
Nobody on this St. John’s roster had been born by March 16, 2000, when the second-seeded Johnnies took down No. 15 Northern Arizona to move into the second round.
For these players, this is also very new. Only Kadary Richmond, Zuby Ejiofor and Sadiku Ibine Ayo have played in a tournament game.
Thursday night, at Amica Mutual Pavilion, that changes.
“As my freshman season went by, I figured out how hard winning actually is and how connected a team has to be,” senior Aaron Scott said as the second-seeded Red Storm prepared to meet No. 15 Omaha of the Summit League in a West Region opening-round game. “I’m here now, I got a lot of experience under my belt, so I’m ready for it.”
Said sophomore Simeon Wilcher: “We grew up watching this tournament. We just have to bring it.”
It has been a remarkable year for the Queens school. The Johnnies won their first outright Big East regular-season title since 1985, which coach Rick Pitino called the first phase. They won their first Big East Tournament championship in 25 years, the second phase.
They have captured New York City’s attention, frequently filling up the Garden like decades ago.
They are hoping for another first here to keep this dream season going in Phase 3.
“I just hope they play like they played in Phases 1 and 2,” Pitino said.
History is on their side. Only eleven No. 15 seeds have knocked off No. 2 seeds in tournament history, the last one coming in 2023, when Princeton took down Arizona. No. 2s are 145-11 all time against No. 15s.
Pitino did his best to talk up Omaha (22-12), a tradition of his against almost all opponents.
He’s more worried about the Mavericks than any kind of hangover from Saturday’s memorable Big East crown and the celebration that followed.
Expectations have heightened, as St. John’s kept winning, losing just once since New Year’s Eve at Creighton.
Just making the tournament isn’t enough. The Storm are expected to advance through this weekend.
The Post breaks down the four March Madness regions with sleeper picks and predictions.
“We’re playing with house money,” Omaha guard JJ White said. “The pressure is not on us, it’s on them.”
The Johnnies (30-4) have dealt with that pressure from the time they established themselves the class of the Big East in early February.
They were favorites in the Big East Tournament and excelled with a bull’s-eye on their back, winning all three games by double figures.
This, of course, is somewhat different. There could be no tomorrow.
“It’s a win-or-go-home situation,” leading scorer and Big East Player of the Year RJ Luis Jr. said. “I think pressure is great. This is the biggest tournament in the world. It’s a great opportunity for me and all my teammates to go out there and show our abilities and to keep on representing the St. John’s we wear on our chest every night.”
All season, Pitino has compared the NCAA Tournament to an actor getting on Broadway. For St. John’s, he said, the regular season was off-Broadway.
Now that the Johnnies have arrived on the big stage, he wants them to take advantage of it.
He joked that a lot of his former Kentucky players live well in Lexington, Ky., and he doesn’t know if they have jobs, but they are treated well because of what they did as champions.
He also mentioned assistant coach Taliek Brown, a national champion at Connecticut.
When Pitino was at Iona, he hired Brown, in part because of his success as a player as someone who won at the highest level.
“If you have that type of run in March, you become part of basketball history,” the Hall of Fame coach said. “And it’s more than just March Madness, you’re part of that winning fiber forever at St. John’s and this team will be remembered for a long time at St. John’s.
“If we can continue on and on, it will be an awesome thing for all these young people.”
