LINKS: Georgetown Finishes Regular Season at St. John’s on Saturday

This type of regular season has become far too “regular” for the Hoyas

Your Georgetown Hoyas (9-21, 2-17) face the St. John’s Red Storm (18-12, 10-9) at noon on Saturday (FOX) for their final game of the regular season. Earlier this week, the Hoyas lost to the Providence Friars (19-11, 10-9 BE), 71-58, Last month, Georgetown lost at home to St. John’s on February 21st by a score of 90-85 in D.C. That game was the first one after Rick Pitino’s infamous “slow laterally” post-game press conference. Well, guess what, the Johnnies haven’t lost since then, beating No. 15 Creighton at home as well as Butler (82-59) and DePaul (104-77) on the road.

Cooley had his share of comments and quotes this season, but the Hoyas never turned it around. Whether this GU roster had more juice to squeeze out or buttons to push is likely a fruitless discussion. Their KenPom Defense Adjusted Efficiency of 113.6 (ranked 321st) will hopefully be the deepest depths of the program. The Offense efficiency has fallen out of the top 100 for now (102) but it’s not anywhere near a foundational level for which the fans would have hoped.

This game, for Georgetown, is probably more about getting a feel for Madison Square Garden than playing spoiler against a team who has likely solidified its spot in the tournament field. Still, maybe the Johnnies let their guard down.

There are 5 conference games on Saturday. The first, 10th, and 11th spots are locked in but the rest are up for grabs. Creighton will be second unless they lose to Villanova and Marquette beats Xavier. Seton Hall can grab third if they win over DePaul and Xavier knocks off Marquette in Cincinnati.

The BIG EAST Tournament will have Georgetown in the second game on Wednesday facing a 7th seed in one of Xavier (16%), Providence (70%), Villanova (12%), or St. John’s (2%). If Villanova beats Creighton, they will be a 5 or 6 seed. If Xavier loses, they will be the ninth seed. St. John’s will be 5th or 6th if they beat Georgetown but could be 6th or 7th if they lose and Villanova wins.

Here are the links:

Rick Pitino’s fiery rant a St. John’s turning point | New York Post

Really, it doesn’t matter if this was Pitino playing 3D chess or a coach telling everyone how he really felt. He apologized, and his players have responded to him. That’s always been what matters most in a coach: Can he get the most out of his team?

Lately, Pitino certainly has. He has fixed the second-half issues that had plagued the Red Storm. During the stretch when they lost eight of 10 games, they led at halftime in five of the losses. Dingle and Ledlum are performing as initially expected — Dingle as the consistent perimeter scorer that was needed. He is averaging 17 points in the current winning streak) and Ledlum is the glue at forward who is suddenly blocking shots at a high level (two per game over the past four contests) while scoring more efficiently despite playing on a bum right ankle. In the past three games, St. John’s has 67 assists and 15 turnovers — an impressive 4.5-1 ratio.

It has risen from 51 in the NET rankings to 34. The offense is now ranked 29th in the country in efficiency, the defense is up to 36th and held two of the best offensive teams in the Big East, No. 10 Creighton and Butler, to an average of 62.5 points in a pair of impressive wins.

Glenn Taylor Jr. found his spark at perfect time for surging St. John’s | New York Post

In a 14-point upset of No. 10 Creighton on Feb. 25, Taylor was pivotal, grabbing 10 rebounds, adding four assists and playing lockdown defense on Big East Player of the Year candidate Baylor Scheierman.

Against Butler three days later, he sank five 3-pointers and scored a season-high 17 points. In those two wins, the Red Storm (18-12, 9-9) outscored the opposition by 46 points with Taylor on the floor.

Those two Quad 1 wins may have saved the Red Storm’s season.

In the least, they halted a skid that had seen the Johnnies lose eight of 10 games.

Entering Tuesday’s game against league doormat DePaul, St. John’s is in position to go dancing for the first time since 2019, firmly on the NCAA Tournament bubble.

And Taylor has been a crucial part of this late-season awakening.

Surging St. John’s to test win streak against Georgetown | Field Level Media

The Red Storm equaled their most points in a Big East game, shot 60.3 percent from the field and are shooting 52 percent during the winning streak.

Georgetown (9-21, 2-17) is concluding its third straight 20-loss season and is 4-54 in league play over the past three seasons.

The Hoyas are on a three-game skid since eking out a 77-76 win at DePaul on Feb. 24. Their 71-58 home loss to Providence on Tuesday marked their 11th double-digit conference loss in coach Ed Cooley’s first season.

“This is the pain of growth,” Cooley said. “This is the pain of change and the pain of transition, right? But we’ll be OK. It’s not my first rodeo. We’re going to be more than OK here at Georgetown.”

St. John’s Hosts Georgetown in Regular Season Finale Saturday at MSG – St. John’s University Athletics | St. John’s University Athletics

Coming off back-to-back 20-plus point victories, the St. John’s men’s basketball team (18-12, 10-9) will look to extend its winning streak to five on Saturday when it hosts Georgetown (9-21, 2-17) at Madison Square Garden. Tip-off is scheduled for 12 p.m.

Prior to the game, St. John’s Head Coach Rick Pitino will introduce the team’s six senior managers and six final year players, Nahiem Alleyne, Sean Conway, Jordan Dingle, Daniss Jenkins, Chris Ledlum and Joel Soriano, as part of a “Senior Day” celebration. Fans are encouraged to make it to their seats by 11:40 a.m. for the start of the pregame ceremony.

FOX will carry the national telecast for the 124th all-time meeting between the Red Storm and Hoyas. Tim Brando and LaPhonso Ellis will be on the call from Midtown.

Daniss Jenkins can taste NCAA bid, but he wants more than a ticket to the big dance | Rumble In The Garden

“We got there, but we got knocked out,” Jenkins said on Thursday, “I want us to be pumped to get there, but I want to go far. I don’t want to make the tournament to say we made it. It’s one thing to get there but to win there, it’s unbelievable.”

With an overall record of 18-12, five Quad 1 wins, and multiple predictive metrics ranking the Red Storm as one of the nation’s top 40 teams, St. John’s is in a solid position to clinch their first NCAA tournament berth in five years.

It’s a stark contrast from where St. John’s stood only three weeks ago when they blew a 19-point lead in a 68-62 loss to Seton Hall that punctuated a nightmarish stretch of eight defeats in ten games. After that game, Rick Pitino dropped his now-infamous postgame press conference, where he ripped multiple players by name for several reasons. Pitino never directed criticism toward Jenkins in that press conference, but that did not stop Jenkins from finding motivation in his coach’s comments.

Georgetown Closes Regular Season at Madison Square Garden Against St. John’s | Georgetown University Athletics

On Tuesday, the Hoyas fell to the visiting Providence College Friars 71-58 at Capital One Arena in the home finale. Jayden Epps led a quartet of Hoyas in double figures with 16 points to go along with four steals and three rebounds. Dontrez Styles followed up with 13 points and a squad-best eight rebounds. Rowan Brumbaugh chipped in 10 points of his own and paced the offense with two helpers while Drew Fielder came off the bench to score 10 points and pull down four rebounds.

Epps is currently fourth in the BIG EAST in scoring, averaging 17.9 ppg in 27 outings. He leads a trio of Hoyas in double figures with Styles pitching in 13.1 ppg and Supreme Cook adding 10.9 ppg.

Cook’s 8.1 rpg ranks fourth in the BIG EAST Conference and is bolstered by his league-leading 4.0 offensive boards per game, which ranks sixth nationally. Additionally, the East Orange native leads the squad in shooting efficiency, knocking down 58.7% (122-208) of his shots. He has tallied eight double-doubles on the season, with the most recent coming against Xavier (15P/14R) on March 2.

Epps dishes out 4.3 apg, holding on to eighth in the conference, while his 2.2 3-pointers made per game checks in at ninth in the league.