OMAHA, Neb. – St. John's University is thinking big.
How big?
The Big East Championship is big.
“The only motivation is we're trying to win the whole league,” junior wing RJ Lewis said Monday. “We're trying to get a big win, and we're trying to go dancing in March.”
This is often discussed, said Joni's top scorer.
Among his teammates and coaches.
Coach Rick Pitino isn't shy about it.
“Every day. The whole team [talks about it]. “We say we need to focus on these games and we can win the league and there is a chance for us to win the league,” Lewis said. “As long as we stay focused and focus on our details, we are in good shape against anyone to win the league.”
He then considered the New Year's Eve meeting with Creighton at CHI Health Center an important step.
St. John's in Omaha, Nebraska, has won 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 best teams in the league, even if they struggled during the non-conference season 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's preseason Player of the Year, and firebrand point guard Stephen Ashworth.
Pitino has repeatedly said he believes the gap between the top of the Big East and the bottom is negligible and that a win on the road will separate the contenders from the contenders.
So far in conference play, the road teams are 5-6.
The five wins were not easy, with an average of 3.2 points.
“If you can win on the road in this conference, you have a chance to become a top-tier 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's no more DePauls or Georgetown from last year. … It's a lot different this year than last year. If you can win 50 percent of Road games, whoever does that will win the conference.
St. John's (11-2, 2-0) took its first step on Dec. 20, rallying from 16 down to win at Providence for the first time since 2017.
Check out the latest Big East and ST standards. John's statistics
This will be a similar challenge.
The hope is that 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 players have to contribute strongly,” Pitino said. “It's not going to be one player. To beat Creighton, you've got to have seven or eight players who play really well, because they shoot the ball well.”
Despite an 11-2 start that includes Big East wins over DePaul and Providence, the Johnnies remain unproven.
They have struggled to put together complete games, though nine of their 10 wins have come by 13 or more points.
They fell short of their top two opponents, projected tournament teams No. 25 Baylor and Georgia, by a combined four points.
This is an opportunity to break into a high-quality team in their own building.
It's the type of game St. John's will need to win if it's ever going to truly compete for a conference title.
When it comes to making a statement, Lewis warned: “It's going to take more than one game.” “That's for sure [would be] beginning. Winning another game on the road is big.”
