Team #100 - St John's

On Saturday March 5th, 2022, I saw my 100th Division One College Basketball teams. On this occasion, I saw the St John's Red Storm take on the Marquette Golden Eagles. St John's is the 11th team and final team that I have seen out of the Big East. The Red Storm comes into this matchup with a 16-13 record and have been 8-10 in the Big East. They most recently played Xavier on Wednesday March 2nd. They won  the matchup against Xavier by a score of 81-66. Julian Champagnie has been the leading scorer for St John's averaging 19.0 PPG.  Marquette comes into this matchup with a 18-11 record on the year. They come into the final game of the regular season with a 10-8 conference record. The Golden Eagles most recently played at DePaul on Wednesday February 2nd, a matchup that they lost by a score of 91-80. Justin Lewis has been the leading scorer for Marquette, averaging 16.8 PPG. 

Always great to watch some late season conference basketball. This game did not disappoint. It of course was senior night for Marquette. Greg Elliott, Darryl Morsell and Kur Kuath have certainly given a lot to this Marquette squad this year. All three are big reasons why this team is heading to the NCAA Tournament. Marquette blitzed St Johns at the start and opened with a 10-0 lead. St Johns would come fighting back and make this a very competitive first half. The Red Storm even lead by one in the first half. Justin Lewis, who was also potentially playing his in final home as a Golden Eagle had a tremendous first half. Lewis certainly showed why he has been a top 5 player in the conference this year. He had 17 first half points. Darryl Morsell also had a very nice first half with 13 points. The two Baltimore natives combined for 30 of 42 points scored in the first half. As for St Johns, Dylan Addae-Wusu kept the Red Storm in the game. Addae-Wusu only scored a total of 17 points over his last six contests. In the first half of this game he scored 10 on 4-4 shooting including 2 three pointers. It also should come as no surprise that Julian Champagnie also had a nice first half for St Johns. He had 10 points. At the first half Marquette held a 42-35 lead. The lead likely would have been nine at halftime but a dunk by Olivier-Maxence Prosper came after the horn. I thought both teams had a nice offensive half but struggled on the defensive end. Late in the season, I have seen this to be an issue for Marquette

The second half a nicely contested contest on both sides. St Johns kept the game under ten points the whole second half. This was the most St Johns game ever. You look at their results from this season in the last month. Lost by 4 at home against Providence, won @ Georgetown by 13, won @ Butler by 3, lost at home to Villanova by 6, lost at home to UConn by 3, won @ Xavier by 13, beat Butler at home by 34, lost at home to Creighton by 3, lost @ DePaul by 5, beat Xavier at home by 15. All St Johns does is play close games. They are the 66th best team in KenPom not too far behind bubble teams of SMU, Florida and Miami. If they had beaten Providence, Uconn, Villanova or Creighton we would likely be talking about them as a tournament team. Marquette did a nice job of controlling the pace in the 2nd half. They would only trail in this game for a total of 30 seconds. The Golden Eagles would go on and win the contest by a score of 85-77. Justin Lewis was the leading scorer for Marquette with 28 points. Dylan Addae-Wusu had 19 for St Johns. St Johns now plays DePaul in the Big East Tournament on Wednesday. Marquette will play Creighton on Thursday. The Big East Tournament is critical for both of these teams. If Marquette wins a couple of games they can certainly help their seeding. St Johns will need to win the Big East Tournament if they want to make it the NCAA Tournament. However, we did Georgetown win the Big East Tournament last year as an eight seed. Could we see some chaos this year in the Big East Tournament. 

My next games will be March 18th as I am attending all four 1st round NCAA Tournament games in Milwaukee. The bracket will be unveiled next Sunday. I am hoping for 5-6 new teams.