St. John’s and Rick Pitino’s reward for getting a No. 2 seed at the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 25 years is not as cushy as it may seem.
Sure, they are the heavy favorites in their first-round matchup against the stellar-shooting No. 15 Omaha, but what the Red Storm is surrounded by in the West Regional — especially at the bottom of the bracket where they are — will provide tests early and often at the Big Dance.
Should St. John’s advance to the second round, waiting for it will be the winner of No. 7 Kansas and No. 10 Arkansas, coached by fellow Hall-of-Famers Bill Self and John Calipari.
Between them and Pitino, the resume is legendary.
After leading St. John’s to its highest AP ranking in 33 seasons (No. 6), its first outright Big East regular-season crown since 1985, and its first Big East Tournament win since 2000, Pitino became the first coach ever to lead six different programs (Boston University, Providence, Kentucky, Louisville, Iona) to the NCAA Tournament, winning two national titles and appearing in seven Final Fours.
His 884 wins rank fifth in NCAA Division I history.
Self has been the main man at Kansas since 2003, winning two national championships and making four Final Fours. His 831 wins rank 13th all-time in Division I.
Calipari has steered his Razorbacks into March Madness in his first season in charge of the program following 15 years at Kentucky, where he won a national title in 2012. It is one of three schools that he has led to a Final Four appearance, along with UMass (1996) and Memphis (2008) — though the NCAA vacated those.
His 875 wins rank ninth all-time.
While a meeting is unlikely, the West Regional also features the two-time defending national champions, UConn, at the top of the bracket as a No. 8 seed. Dan Hurley and his Huskies will play No. 9 Oklahoma before meeting the winner of No. 1 Florida and No. 16 Norfolk State.
St. John’s defeated UConn twice during the regular season between Feb. 16 and Feb. 23, though Pitino will not be looking at anything past Thursday night (9:45 p.m. ET) in Providence against Omaha.
“I’ve lost in the first round before, so we’ll just focus on that,” he said. “When you have a lot of experience, you learn what not to do as much as what to do. There are a lot of things that you must understand… that you have to stay focused. This is a time of year when everybody is firing out brackets, everybody’s talking about it, and you have to understand the focus of every little thing that goes into an NCAA game.”
