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OMAHA, Neb. — St. John’s is thinking big.
How big?
Big East championship big.
“The only motivation is we’re trying to win the whole league,” junior wing RJ Luis said on Monday. “We’re trying to win big, we’re trying to go dancing in March.”
It is often discussed, the Johnnies’ leading scorer said.
Among teammates and coaches.
Coach Rick Pitino isn’t shying away from it.
“Every day. The whole team [talks about it]. We say we need to key in on these games and we can win the league and there’s an opportunity for us to win the league,” Luis said. “As long as we focus in and key in on our details, we’re in good shape against anybody to win the league.”
Then consider New Year’s Eve’s meeting with Creighton at CHI Health Center a significant step.
St. John’s has won in Omaha, Neb., just once in 11 meetings and could improve to 3-0 in league play for the first time since 1998-99.
The Bluejays remain one of the league’s top teams, even if they struggled during the nonconference and lost top transfer addition Pop Isaacs to season-ending hip surgery.
They own wins over seventh-ranked Kansas, Notre Dame and Villanova, and feature 7-foot-1 dynamo Ryan Kalkbrenner, the Big East preseason Player of the Year, and lights-out shooting point guard Steven Ashworth.
Pitino has repeatedly said he believes the difference between the top of the Big East and the bottom is negligible and that winning on the road will separate the contenders from the pretenders.
So far in conference play, the road teams are 5-6.
The five wins have not come easy, by an average of 3.2 points.
“If you can win on the road in this conference, you’re going to have a chance of being an upper echelon team,” Pitino said. “It’s going to be very difficult for every team in this conference to win on the road — every team — because there are no more DePauls or Georgetowns of last year. … It’s a lot different this year than last year. If you can ever win 50 percent of your road games, whoever does that, is going to win the conference.”
St. John’s (11-2, 2-0) passed its first step on Dec. 20, rallying from 16-down to win at Providence for the first time since 2017.
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This will be a similar challenge.
The hope is the Johnnies shoot much better than they did against the Friars, when they missed 15 free throws and went 3-for-18 from 3-point range.
“This is a game where all five guys have to strongly contribute,” Pitino said. “It’s not going to be one player. To beat Creighton, you’re going to have to have seven, eight guys really play well, because they shoot it so well.”
Despite an 11-2 start that includes Big East wins over DePaul and Providence, the Johnnies are still unproven.
They have struggled putting together complete games, although nine of their 10 wins have come by 13 points or more.
They have fallen short against their top two opponents, projected tournament teams No. 25 Baylor and Georgia, by a combined four points.
This is an opportunity to break through against a quality team in its own building.
It is the kind of game that St. John’s will need to win if it really is going to contend for a conference crown.
“It’s going to take more than just one game,” Luis cautioned, when it comes to making a statement. “That definitely [would be] a start. Winning another road game is big.”
