St. John's Red Storm
Record: 21-11, 10-8 Big East
Head coach: Steve Lavin (5th season)
Season summary: The Red Storm struggled at points during the season, dropping seven of 10 games in a span of just more than a month. St. Johns found its footing just in time to end its regular season with a couple of quality wins, led by star D’Angelo Harrison. The guard is averaging 17.5 points and 5.4 rebounds per contest on the year and helped the Red Storm defeated Xavier and Georgetown in back-to-back home games.
Tournament prospects were fairly promising for St. John's until news that starting center Chris Obekpa—who averaged 5.8 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game on the season—would be suspended for the first two weeks of the NCAA tournament after a failed drug test. Now, the Red Storm will likely enter the tournament frazzled without their rim protector and will have to adjust on the fly.
How they make a run: Harrison and guards Rysheed Jordan and Phil Greene IV catch fire at the right time and Sir'Dominic Pointer picks up the slack on the inside.
How they falter: Opposing teams lock down on Harrison, or the team cannot adjust to the loss of Obekpa, and the Red Storm don't make it past their first game.
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