St. John's up and down season ends in NCAA birth

Red Storm Coach Steve Lavin / Eric Chan

The 2010-11 season for the St. Johns Red Storm basketball team was a roller coaster ride. In the end the Red Storm earned their NCAA tournament birth for the first time since 2002. In the preseason coaches poll St. Johns did not receive even a single vote for the top 25.

The St. Johns basketball team got off to a rocky start with disappointing losses to the likes of St. Mary’s, Fordham and St. Bonaventure. However, under the guidance of coaching icon Steve Lavin, the Red Storm would turn it around. In the middle of the season the Red Storm encountered a rough patch in their schedule facing eight straight top 25 teams. As expected, St. Johns went only 2-5 in the first 7 of those games. But in the final game of the stretch, they blew out Duke, ranked 3rd in the country at the time. This game sparked the team to go 9-2 for the remainder of the season including impressive victories over then No. 4-ranked Pittsburgh, No. 10-ranked Cincinnati and No.15-ranked Villanova. The Red Storm ranked 17th in the coaches poll to going into the Big East Tournament.

Senior guard Dwight Hardy was the catalyst of the Red Storm. He came up big when it counted the most, including his 26 points in the upset of Duke and a season high of 34 against Villanova. In the Big East tournament, St. Johns had a controversial win over Rutgers in the first round and then fought hard in the second round against Syracuse, but came up short.

St. John's earned a 6th seed in the NCAA tournament. It appears as if St.Johns has been positioned in a portion of the bracket where they could make a run in the tournament. After a first round match up against 11th seeded Gonzaga, potential opponents for the Red Storm are Jimmer Fredette (BYU), 2nd seed Florida, 1st seed Big East rival Pittsburgh, who they have already beaten this season. All of these games will be a challenge for St. John's, but if they can play tough defense as they did in their big wins they have a chance to go deep in the tournament.