It took Rick Pitino just two seasons to revive the St. John’s men’s basketball program.
The Red Storm, ranked sixth in the country, finished the regular season at 27-4 and tied UConn’s 2023-24 record for Big East wins in a season with an 18-2 record in league play, claiming its first outright Big East title since 1984-85. Led by two all-Big East first teamers in RJ Luis Jr. and Zuby Ejiofor, and second teamer Kadary Richmond, St. John’s truly turned Madison Square Garden into a home arena by year’s end, selling out multiple games – and not just when UConn came into town.
The World’s Most Famous Arena will be designated as a neutral site this week with St. John’s the clear favorite to win the Big East Tournament, which it hasn’t done since 2000. But there are a number of challengers – the reigning champion Huskies included – who picked up momentum down the final stretch of the regular season and are playing their best basketball in March.
Will the Red Storm check another box on their historic season? Can Marquette right its ship, or will Xavier get off of the bubble and make a run for the Big East’s automatic bid? Maybe UConn could parlay its momentum with its championship DNA and defend the crown.
Here are the top storylines to watch in the 2025 Big East Tournament:
What would it take for a UConn-St. John’s title game?
What a scene it would be. Rick Pitino in his white suit, Dan Hurley in whatever he was wearing when UConn knocked the Johnnies out in the semifinal round last year (dragon underwear maybe?). March mayhem as fans battle for “ownership” of The Garden.
UConn’s four-game winning streak to close the season was critical in making the matchup possible, however long the odds. The Huskies jumped up to the No. 3 seed and positioned themselves as far from St. John’s as possible in the bracket. But no path is easy for this year’s UConn team, which will meet either Villanova or Seton Hall in Thursday’s quarterfinal – both teams it lost to on the road, then beat handily in the return game at home. If UConn can get to Friday, it’ll meet either Creighton, DePaul or Georgetown in the semifinal.
St. John’s will draw either Providence or Butler in the quarterfinal with a chance to play either Marquette or Xavier in what is sure to be a hard-fought semifinal. But it is hard to beat any team three times and, however it shakes out, St. John’s would need to do so, twice, to get to the final.
Can Xavier stay 0n the right side of the bubble?
Injuries caused Xavier to get off to a slow start this season, but the Musketeers have gotten healthy and played like an NCAA Tournament team over the last month as they enter the conference tournament on a seven-game winning streak. Sean Miller’s team, 21-10 on the year, was among the “last four in” in bracketology predictions from both Joe Lunardi at ESPN and Jerry Palm at CBS, and holds wins over UConn, Creighton and Marquette.
The Musketeers will have a rubber match with the Golden Eagles, who’ve lost six of 10 since Feb. 1, on Thursday for the likely chance to play St. John’s in the semifinal, who they pushed to overtime when they met at the Garden earlier this season.
If Xavier can stay on the right side of the bubble, it would likely be the fourth Big East team in the tournament, one better than last season.
Villanova in need of a run
When Villanova missed the NCAA Tournament last year for the second time in a row, it was the program’s longest drought since the 1999-2004 stretch, during which Jay Wright replaced Steve Lappas (2001-02) and brought the Wildcats back to the dance in his fourth season at the helm.
In Year Three under Kyle Neptune, it looks to be another disappointing end for the Wildcats – some of whom (Eric Dixon, Jordan Longino) were on Wright’s final team, which won the 2022 Big East Tournament and made it to the Final Four.
Positioned in Lunardi’s “next four out” after an 18-13 regular season, which featured key wins over St. John’s, UConn and Marquette, Villanova’s perfect path would be to beat Seton Hall on Wednesday, then UConn on Thursday and Creighton on Friday. Depending on how the selection committee values the conference tournament, the veteran group will likely still need the automatic bid to get in.
Wednesday’s best game: No. 7 Georgetown vs. No. 10 DePaul
It was less than a week ago that DePaul beat Georgetown in Chicago and Ed Cooley went off about his team’s “dog (expletive)” defense and the “piss poor effort” from his players and staff.
Without center Thomas Sorber, one of the two best freshmen in the league, the Hoyas lost four of their last five games of the season and seem to be out of contention. But, as Patrick Ewing’s 2021 Georgetown team showed, miracles can happen when no one sees them coming.
DePaul, in its first year of a rebuild under Chris Holtmann, won its last two games of the season to quadruple last year’s win total in Big East play (4-16). There seems to have been a significant culture shift under Holtmann, and while their talent doesn’t match the top of the league in Year One, the Blue Demons could set up a quarterfinal matchup with Creighton, who they lost to by 10 in Omaha on Feb. 26.
