It has been a magical rebirth season for the St. John's basketball program, but they certainly aren't done yet.
This weekend the #1 seeded Red Storm reached 30 wins for the third time in program history and with it also won their first Big East tournament title since 2000.
Hall of Famer Rick Pitino, at the ripe old age of 72 years old, became the first coach to take six schools to the NCAA Tournament. Pitino seemed like a controversial hire when he signed onto St. John's, but this has been the best story in basketball this season and now they are looking to add to this incredible storied season.
Pitino has turned the once proud program around after years of futility. He is only in his second season at St. John's and now has them slotted as a #2 seed in the big dance. While the two seed is a compliment to the program overall, it does sting a bit that the New York fans won't get to see St. John's. The committee really dropped the ball here of not putting them in New York, especially after that electric crowd at Madison Square Garden for the Big East Tournament.
To make matters worse they put the Johnnies as far from home as possible. The committee chose to put the team in the West bracket. A good silver lining is that the first and second rounds are in Providence, Rhode Island, an easy hike for true St. John's fans to travel to. If, or let's be positive here, when the Johnnies advance, they will have to play in the regional finals in San Francisco, California.
As the old saying goes you just have to beat the teams who are in front of you and St. John's will have to do that regardless of the venue. Let's all enjoy the ride as the Johnnie's are back and looking for the biggest prize yet, an NCAA Tournament championship.