Three games into conference play, St. John’s hit a crossroads.
It was Jan. 3, and the Red Storm had just blown a double-digit lead over the final minutes of a back-breaking loss to lowly Providence at Madison Square Garden.
That 77-71 defeat dropped St. John’s — the No. 5-ranked team in the country to start the season — to 9-5 overall and 2-1 in Big East play.
Head coach Rick Pitino didn’t sugarcoat the situation.
“Now our backs are to the wall very early in the season,” Pitino said at the time.
Less than three weeks later, that eye-opening afternoon at the Garden represents a turning point for St. John’s.
The Red Storm entered Tuesday night’s meeting with Seton Hall at the Garden on a season-long four-game winning streak since that home loss to Providence.
All four victories were by at least seven points, and three came on the road, including on Saturday night against a Villanova team with NCAA Tournament aspirations.
“After the Providence game, there was a bad taste in all of our mouths, and we didn’t want to feel that type of pain again,” St. John’s forward Bryce Hopkins said.
“A switch flipped for me and the guys. I feel like every day, when we come into practice, we’re preparing at a high level … just to be able to face adversity. … I feel like the guys are coming together at the right time.”
After winning last year’s Big East regular season and conference tournament championships, St. John’s retooled with a transfer class that many touted as the best in the country.
That fueled sky-high expectations for this season, but St. John’s fell out of the national rankings after a disappointing non-conference slate in which it lost to Alabama, Iowa State, Auburn and Kentucky.
The defeat by Providence marked the fifth time this season that St. John’s lost a game in which it led during the second half.
That loss served as a wake-up call, prompting a team meeting in which the players vowed to tighten things up.
“It was a group thing,” guard Ian Jackson said. “All of us know we don’t want to feel that way again. So … we’re going to prepare the right way. We’re gonna do things the right way. We’re going to pay attention to the little things that make big things happen.”
The Red Storm’s backs aren’t nearly as up against the wall as they were on Jan. 3, but they still have work to do.
St. John’s entered Tuesday with a 13-5 record, including 6-1 against Big East teams. But St. John’s is yet to defeat a ranked opponent, nor has it faced No. 2 UConn, which is 18-1 overall and a perfect 8-0 in Big East play.
According to the NET Rankings, which are the NCAA’s primary evaluation tool, the Johnnies’ home loss to Providence went down as a potentially costly Quad 3 loss — the worst mark on the Red Storm’s résumé.
But there are plenty of games remaining to bolster the St. John’s résumé, too. In the latest AP poll, St. John’s received 64 votes, tying it with Wisconsin for the most among schools that did not crack this week’s top 25.
“When I told the guys, ‘Our backs are to the wall,’ and they all remember this, I said, ‘There’s not a team I’ve ever coached with their backs to the wall that I’d rather coach than you guys. There’s not a shadow of a doubt that you guys will win,’ Pitino said.
“Four minutes of bad basketball, that’s not going to [define] who you are.”
