NCAA Tournament seed set: St. John's basketball a 6 seed, playing Gonzaga in Denver; Brigham Young on deck
by picodulce on Mar 13, 2011 7:05 PM EDT
in St. John's Red Storm men's basketball
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This is the culmination of hard work, perseverance, and Hammer to Rock.
After a good 40 minutes of selection show bloviation, the St. John's Red Storm finally know where they will play in the NCAA Tournament - the Gonzaga Bulldogs in Denver, Colorado this Thursday, March 17th. The injury to D.J. Kennedy hurt St. John's by at least a seed line; the Johnnies caught a 6 seed and were moved far from their region.
The Gonzaga game is a rematch from the 2000 NCAA Tournament, where the 10th seeded Bulldogs knocked off St. John's in the second round. I remember Erick Barkley's proclamation that only the Final Four would satisfy the Red Storm... but a mediocre game against Dan McClintock and the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks foretold an upset by the then Cinderalla-ish Gonzaga.
Years later, the Bulldogs staved off a challenge from the St. Mary's Gaels in the West Coast Conference to get in the Tournament. They're tall and defend the paint well, but struggle... to handle the ball at times. This year, the #11 seeded Bulldogs will look to once again become national darlings; but there's no way for them to prepare for what is basically a new team that St. John's will bring to Denver.
Looks like a good matchup to me. And Jimmer Fredette and the #3 seeded Brigham Young Cougars could be hard to beat because of Fredette's shot-making, but they have looked shaky down the stretch without suspended forward Brandon Davies.
These are not, by any means, insurmountable odds.
#doitfordj
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Gonzaga is not a cupcake.
If you look too far ahead (BYU), you might just be disappointed. We want a piece of BYU ourselves in preparation of them joining the WCC next year. Expect a dogfight (bulldog, that is).
Best of luck to you.
GAME ON!
nobody is saying they are a cupcake at all, just saying st johns did not get an impossible draw. Should be a dogfight from start to finish and im looking forward to it.
#DoitForDJ
by nyrangerfan521 on Mar 14, 2011 12:10 AM EDT up reply actions
Underestimating our bench.
I think our ability to overcome D.J. Kennedy’s loss is being underestimated. While we won’ t have his leadership, defensive skills and basketball acumen, we should be able to makeup his points and rebounds. Sean Evans has been a monster on the boards lately. He’s been playing the best basketball of his career. I think one of the keys will be justin Brownlee’s ability to score in the paint. Also, Gonzaga’s ball handling is susceptible to the Storm Swarm. We’ll see.
Another Zag fan here.
I have to say I think we will win. We’re peaking at the right time and though we were turning the ball over at a record pace early in the season, it now just goes to show how much we’ve improved that our average now looks merely disappointing.
Kennedy’s line of 10 ppg 8 rpg is awfully close to Sacre’s 12ppg 6rpg and I know we’d be in big trouble without Sacre even though we’re a lot deeper. I think what it comes down to is that our one weakness is defending the three pointer, while St. John’s ranks 339 out of 345 Division 1 teams in percentage of their points achieved by 3 point shots. 33% from beyond the arc rank 232/345 and is even worse than Gonzaga’s 35%. And DJ Kennedy was arguably the best 3 point shooter for the Red Storm.
The path to victory for St. John’s would be a lot of points of turnovers, plus a lot of foul shots. I think the Zags will turnover the ball enough to give some of us heart-attacks but not quite enough to lose the game. I’m a big KenPom fan and I’ll take the #27 team over the #35 team. Without the injury, I think you’d be the favorite against us for sure, but then we probably wouldn’t have met in the first round anyway. You’ve had a fantastic season since winning to the Gaels, and I think if your team had a game or two before the tournament to work things out it would be different, but I think St. John’s will struggle in their first game without Kennedy in a way similar to BYU’s first game without Davies.
Good luck and have fun!
with aldo respect, i dont think you have watched st johns much if you think Kennedy is the best 3 pt shooter on the team. Hardy can absolutely light it up from 3 and you cant leave Horne open either.
I think it will be a very good game (st johns is only favored by 1.5) that can go either way. If the Zags can handle sju’s pressure it could be a long day for the johnnies. I think the team that shoots better will win this gam of pretty evenly matched teams
#DoitForDJ
by nyrangerfan521 on Mar 14, 2011 12:08 AM EDT up reply actions
Agree
While I respect Pyrrholoxia’s devotion to Gonzaga (I would be dissappointed if you did not support your team), from a STJ perspective, I don’t a big problem here. This is a different STJ team than the one that lost to St. Mary’s so same team comparisons really do not apply. SJU will have had a week to figure out how to plug the gap left by DJ’s injury and the team will draw upon that for inspiration.
What I am concerned about is yet another trip west and I hope STJ is not looking past Gonzaga to BYU (a concern that could be shared by Gonzaga fans).
by poor richards on Mar 14, 2011 9:03 AM EDT up reply actions
Reply Fail
" I don’t see a big problem here" …sorry
by poor richards on Mar 14, 2011 9:04 AM EDT up reply actions
I think Lavin and company will have the team ready and prepared for Gonzaga
by nyrangerfan521 on Mar 14, 2011 1:27 PM EDT up reply actions
Hey all!
All I can say is that this is going to be a fantastic game. All the past year’s I’ve had some sort of animosity towards the Zag’s first round opponents but this year I’m just stoked for a good game! Best of luck, and here’s to beating BYU… no matter which team does it :)
what's with the BYU hate from Zags fans?
It feels like a rivalry, even before they join the WCC.
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I have St. John’s in the Sweet Sixteen at least. I think they beat Gonzaga in a close game because of the clutch factor of Dwight Hardy. He needs to touch the ball on every possession in the final two minutes. Robert Sacre is going to be huge for Gonzaga. I thought their Big 3 was better last year when they had Matt Boldin and Elias Harris before his injury. This is a different Zags team that has experience, but not winning experience.
Look for Brownlee to score the basketball in his new power forward role. Johnnies win by five.
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