STJ Awaits Selection, Seeding For 27th NCAA Tournament Appearance

March 13, 2011

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NEW YORK - One of the winningest programs in college basketball history should make its return to the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship after a nine-year hiatus, as No. 17/18 St. John's (21-11) awaits selection and seeding for the 2011 tournament. Winners of 10 of their last 13 and 4-2 while playing as a ranked team for the first time in 10 seasons, head coach Steve Lavin leads the Red Storm to its first "Big Dance" dance berth since its now-NCAA vacated appearance in 2002. NCAA Championship games will air live nationally on CBS, TBA, TNT or Tru TV, and St. John's can be heard live on the official flagship of St. John's Basketball, Bloomberg Radio 1130-AM, and on RedStormSports.com (subscription), with John Minko and analyst Tarik Turner.

St. John's holds a 27-28 record in the NCAA Tournament all-time, from 1951-2000. The Red Storm has been to the Tournament on 26 prior occasions, reaching the title game in 1952 and the Final Four in 1985. Only 17 Division I schools have made more appearances than St. John's.

St. John's currently ranks tied for 34th among all Division I programs with 27 tournament wins. STJ's last NCAA victory came in 2000, playing as an automatic qualifier after capturing the BIG EAST title with an 80-70 victory over UConn. Playing as a No. 2 seed, St. John's knocked off Northern Arizona, 61-56, in Tucson. The Red Storm then fell to Gonzaga, 82-76, in the Second Round.

As a No. 3 seed in 1999, current NBA World Champion Ron Artest led St. John's to the Elite Eight, with First and Second Round wins over Samford and Indiana in Orlando, Fla., and a South Regional Semifinal win over Maryland in Knoxville, Tenn., before Ohio State spoiled the Red Storm's Final Four bid with a dramatic 77-74 win in the South Regional Final.

NCAA Teams Of Tradition: 1952 NCAA Finalists

Accused by basketball fans and writers alike as undeserving of their surprise NCAA bid after a hasty and unexpected ousting from the NIT by La Salle, St. John's set out for Raleigh, N.C., determined to at least justify its presence in the Eastern Regionals. The justification would have to come at the expense of the host team, NC State, which had won 29 successive tournament games at home.

The Redmen, as they were known, needed to beat Coach Everett Case's team in order get a chance to avenge an 81-40 loss to Adolph Rupp's Kentucky Wildcats, who defeated them earlier in the year. Rupp's squad routed Penn State in its NCAA opening round game, 82-54. After falling behind early, St. John's, led by Dick Duckett's outside shooting, surged back to take a 28-25 halftime lead. In the third period St. John's wrapped things up, outscoring NC State 19-8. In the end it was St. John's 60, NC State 49 with four St. John's players hitting double figures. Bob Zawoluk was the high scorer for St. John's with 12 points, followed by Duckett and Jack McMahon, who each had 11 apiece. Jim Davis added 10, flicking in five set shots.

In the second round the speculation was that it would take a miracle for the Redmen to upend the Wildcats. Frank McGuire's boys took the court hoping to keep it respectable. For a change, St. John's came out relaxed from the start. In their first meeting against the Rupp men down in Lexington, St. John's shot just 16.7 percent going 10-for-60; in Raleigh, SJU shot 24-for-53 (45.2 percent). St. John's took the early lead and never looked back. Zawoluk and McMahon were sensational in their scoring efforts. Zawoluk set a new NCAA scoring record with 32 points in the game. Ronnie MacGilvray won over the crowd with his rebounding and stifling defensive play.

The spark generated by the unbelievable Kentucky triumph carried over to the next game. St. John's had a heart-stopping 61-59 win over favored Illinois in Seattle, Wash. The following night in the championship game, Kansas' Clyde Lovellette personally brought the high-flying Redmen back to earth. The massive center broke the NCAA record for points set days before by Zawoluk with a 33-point performance. The Jayhawks went on to defeat St. John's, 80-63, in the NCAA championship game to capture the crown.

NCAA Teams Of Tradition: 1985 NCAA Semifinalists

On their way to the second Final Four appearance in school history, the Redmen began the journey slowly in Salt Lake City, easing past Southern University, 83-59, before escaping Arkansas, 68-65. Against Southern, St. John's had three players who scored 20 or more points, led by Walter Berry's 24 with 13 rebounds. Bill Wennington contributed 23 while Chris Mullin added 21 in the game. Mullin keyed the Redmen to the victory over Arkansas with 26. Joe Kleine had 23 for the Razorbacks.

The wins earned St. John's the right to advance to the West Regional in Denver, Colo., and a meeting with Kentucky. Mullin netted 30 and Willie Glass contributed down the stretch to lift the Redmen to an 86-70 win. That game marked the final contest for Kentucky Coach Joe B. Hall.

The Elite Eight matchup between Lou Carnesecca's St. John's squad and Jim Valvano's NC State team was a back-and-forth affair that earned the tongue-in-cheek moniker "Spaghetti Western" from the sportswriters. Mullin scored 15 of his 25 in the second half, finding an answer for every Wolfpack run. NC State hung close until the Redmen managed a 10-point lead with 1:22 to play, and shortly after Carnesecca allowed it to sink in - St. John's was headed to the 1985 Final Four.

"With five seconds left in the game, I looked up at the clock and kept thinking, `We're going... we're going.' I am very much elated to think I'm finally going after 1,000 games," said Carnesecca at a postgame press conference. "When I'm going to my grave, this I'll remember."

Patrick Ewing and Georgetown stood between St. John's and the title game, which the Redmen had not reached since 1952. The rivalry was intense, as St. John's had defeated the Hoyas earlier that season in Landover, Md., to take the No. 1 national ranking. Georgetown won the next two meetings, once at Madison Square Garden that snapped the Redmen's 14-game conference win streak, and once in the BIG EAST Tournament title game.

The Hoyas would prevail, 77-59, ending the storybook season for St. John's but giving Redmen fans a campaign to remember always.

Opening Tips

St. John's improved 10 places in the BIG EAST standings from 2009-10 to 2010-11 -- reversing its 6-12 league record -- moving from 13th to a tie for third. Only twice before has a jump of such magnitude occurred in BIG EAST Conference history, both from 1990-2000 to 2000-01, when Boston College went from 13th to first, and Providence climbed from 12th to second.

The Red Storm is ranked 17th in the Associated Press Top 25 and 18th in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll, playing as a ranked team for the first time since 2000-01. In its 32 games in 2010-11, St. John's has faced 15 opponents that have been ranked at some point (47 percent). The BIG EAST occupies nine of the 25 spots in the AP Poll this week, and seven in the Coaches Poll.

STJ has defeated six Top 25 teams in 2010-11, including four in the top 10. Before toppling No. 15/14 Villanova, No. 4/4 Pitt, No. 10/9 UConn, No. 3/3 Duke, No. 9/11 Notre Dame and No. 13/13 Georgetown this season, St. John's senior class had defeated one Top 25 team. Five of those victories have come at "The World's Most Famous Arena."

With a 21-11 record (12-6 BIG EAST) that includes eight wins away from home, St. John's is currently ranked No. 27 according to www.RPIratings.com's March 13 update. In addition, STJ now has the eleventh-strongest schedule in the nation. St. John's is 3-1 vs. the RPI top 10, 6-5 vs. the top 25, 8-8 vs. the top 50, 10-8 vs. the top 100 and 12-10 vs. the top 150.

The Red Storm is 9-7 away from home in the 2010-11 season, and the game at Seton Hall marked St. John's 12th true road game of the year (5-4 BIG EAST, 5-7 overall). Trips to Moraga, Calif., and Anchorage, Alaska, for the 2010 Great Alaska Shootout title saw St. John's cover 12,860 miles via air prior to Dec. 1.

St. John's is 13-4 on the season and went 8-0 in BIG EAST play when leading at the half. The team is 6-7 when trailing at halftime, with second-half comebacks against Columbia, Arizona State, Davidson, Northwestern, then-No. 4/4 Pitt and USF.

On the season, St. John's is 8-4 in games decided by five points or less and 11-6 in games decided by 10 points or less. St. John's played its share of close battles last season, with 11 of its 16 losses coming by 10 or fewer points. The Red Storm held leads in the second half in seven of its 12 BIG EAST defeats in 2009-10, and led at halftime in six of those losses, including three against ranked opponents. Attaining, playing with and keeping leads -- particularly on the road -- have been major points of emphasis since the 2010-11 preseason.

St. John's earned win No. 1,700 in program history by defeating Notre Dame on Feb. 14, 2010. Twenty-one wins in 2010-11 make 1,724 -- the seventh-most in NCAA history.

The Jan. 30 victory over Duke was before a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden (19,353). Before that, the last time St. John's sold out a regular season game at "The World's Most Famous Arena" was on March 2, 2003, when the Red Storm upset No. 6 Duke, 72-71, before a sellout crowd of 19,610. Marcus Hatten capped a 29-point performance by hitting the game-winning free throw with no time remaining. The Red Storm sold out two-straight home games, as 5,602 fans attended the Jan. 22 contest against No. 25 Cincinnati at Carnesecca Arena in Queens. The Feb. 23 game on campus vs. DePaul and the March 5 "Senior Night Blackout" vs. USF marked the Red Storm's third and fourth sell-outs of the season, respectively.

In taking the 33rd Great Alaska Shootout title, the Red Storm became the fifth of six BIG EAST squads to capture a November tournament championship in 2010-11. No. 5/5 Pitt topped Maryland and No. 22 Texas to post a 2K Sports Coaches vs. Cancer Classic victory, while Georgetown downed Coastal Carolina, Wofford and NC State to take the Charleston Classic title and UConn upended Wichita State, No. 2/2 Michigan State and No. 8/9 Kentucky to claim the EA Sports Maui Invitational title. Syracuse won the Legends Classic with victories over Detroit, William & Mary, Michigan and Georgia Tech, while Notre Dame earned the Old Spice Classic title with wins over Georgia, Cal and Wisconsin.

The St. John's-Seton Hall March 3 matchup on ESPN2 continued a string where seven of the Red Storm last 11 regular season games aired on national television. STJ was 5-2 in that stretch, and is 7-5 on the year in nationally-televised games (CBS: 1-1, ESPN: 4-2, ESPN2: 1-1, ESPNU: 1-2).

Storm Tracker

New York City playground legend and 2011 BIG EAST Most Improved Player Dwight Hardy made quite an impression as a prolific scorer in 2009-10, finishing second on the squad with a 10.5 ppg average. This season the All-BIG EAST first teamer and three-time league Player of the Week is pacing the Red Storm, starting all 32 games and hitting at an 18.0 ppg clip to rank fourth among all BIG EAST players (61st nationally). A multi-dimensional athlete with the ability to get into the paint and draw contact, Hardy's .843 free throw percentage is currently sixth in the league (67th nationally), and his 1.8 made 3s per game ranks 13th.

Holiday Festival and Great Alaska Shootout MOP Justin Brownlee has been in the starting lineup for 30 games in 2010-11 after making three starts last season. His 12.2 ppg rank are 25th in the league, and his .495 field goal percentage is 11th (60th nationally).

Rookie forward Dwayne Polee II -- the 2010 Los Angeles City Section and MaxPreps State of California High School Player of the Year -- impressed in the preseason and has made an immediate impact in the first 31 games. The athletic newcomer with the 40-inch vertical has averaged 4.8 points and 2.8 rebounds in 12 road contests, while making 24-of-59 field goals (.407) and rejecting five shots over 16.1 minutes per game.

Senior guard Paris Horne -- one of STJ's toughest perimeter defenders -- is also on-pace to leave his mark in the Red Storm's offensive career record books. With 146 career 3-point field goals made -- including the game-winner at Providence (Jan. 1) -- Horne is currently third all-time and is only five treys short of moving into first place. His 1,188 career points make him St. John's 46th member of the 1,000-point club (currently 31st).

2011 BIG EAST Sixth Man of the Year Justin Burrell has contributed in all 32 games, and with nine points against Syracuse, is now St. John's 47th all-time 1,000-point scorer (1,006) -- the third on the squad to amass as many points. The senior forward has averaged 6.6 points on 50.0 percent shooting from the field across the last eight games, to go along with 4.8 rebounds (19-of-38 offensive).

Lightning-quick and Queens-tough, senior Malik Boothe has been a four-year floor general. He currently ranks in the top 25 among all BIG EAST players with a 3.0 assists per game average, and his 1.9 assist-to-turnover ratio (92 assists, 49 turnovers on the year) ranks 11th among league leaders and in the top 100 nationally. His efforts have helped the Red Storm lead the BIG EAST and rank 13th nationally in turnover margin (+3.7).

Bruising forward Sean Evans established himself among the Red Storm's most consistent performers as a junior in 2009-10. Evans' 11 career double-doubles include an 11-point, 12-rebound effort vs. Syracuse in the 2011 BIG EAST Tournament. He has averaged 13.8 ppg and 9.5 rpg while shooting 67.7 percent from the field and 76.5 percent at the free throw line in four games across the last two years' conference tournaments, and 8.6 ppg and 7.2 rpg in his last five games of 2010-11.

Big man Dele Coker led the 2009-10 squad in field goal percentage (.629) and rejections (24). In 2010-11 he has tallied points against St. Bonaventure (Dec. 7), Fordham (Dec. 11), Georgetown (Jan. 3), Notre Dame (Jan. 8), Syracuse (Jan. 12), UCLA (Feb. 5) and DePaul (Feb. 23).

Local guard Malik Stith has seen time at the one and the two after dealing 37 assists and only 22 turnovers as a rookie. He is averaging 3.3 ppg this season, with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.1.

Dynamic senior swingman D.J. Kennedy was a six-time BIG EAST Honor Roll member last season and is a two-time first team All-Met selection by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers' Association (2008-09, 2009-10). He is 12th on STJ's all-time scoring list with 1,504 career points, 11th on the all-time rebounding list with 781 boards and sixth on the all-time steals list with 183 thefts. Those totals make him one of only three players in St. John's history to total 1,450 points, 750 rebounds and 150 steals, joining legends Malik Sealy (2,402 pts, 880 rebs, 238 stls) and George Johnson (1,763 pts, 1,240 rebs, 153 stls). A torn right ACL suffered vs. Syracuse in the BIG EAST Championship Tournament (March 10) has him sidelined for the NCAA Tournament.

St. John's University Athletics

STJ Awaits Selection, Seeding For 27th NCAA Tournament Appearance

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Players Mentioned

Malik Boothe

Justin Brownlee

Justin Burrell

Dele Coker

Sean Evans

Dwight Hardy

Paris Horne

D.J. Kennedy

Dwayne Polee II

Malik Stith

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