St. John’s Red Storm
With less than 6 weeks from us having a bracket in our hands, let us begin to countdown and break down this years March and the madness behind it.
Every day we will look at a different angle of the beauty that is the bracket. From top seeds to bubble teams and every team in between. Which styles of play can be a problem for teams and which teams are on my radar for wearing the glass slipper.
With still 6 weeks to go standings can and will change.
March Madness, St. John’s Red Storm
- St. John’s Red Storm
St. John’s under Rick Pitino in his second year is having one of the best seasons in program history with only 3 losses to this point. Overall record is 19-3 while being 10-1 in conference play in the Big East.
A huge week ahead for the Red Storm as they will take on both Marquette and UConn. This week will give us a huge understanding of how good St. John’s truly is.
Currently seeded at 7th in the West bracket, look St. John’s to either get bumped up to the 5th or 6th seed or fall as low as the 10th seed. Still a lot of uncertainty surrounding this team.
This team has a ton of experience and is ranked 24th in NET rankings. Their three losses came to Baylor, Georgia, and Creighton; all by a combined 5 point margin. Two 1 point losses and one 3 point loss.
This team is average on the offensive end ranking 115th in offensive efficiency scoring 1.11 points per possession. However it is on defense where they win games.
Ranking 5th in defensive efficiency holding opponents to 0.90 points per possession.
The record says it all, stats do not always matter, the name of the game is to win.
Sets at a Glance
Kadary Richmond is a superstar at the point guard position. He is surrounded by talented guards who can dribble, drive, pass, and shoot.
Rick Pitino does an amazing job giving those players the freedom to run the show. Richmond has the reigns to come down and make a play however he sees fit, from driving to getting to his mid range pull up.
They run an old Miami style offense off of the first action that turns into dribble hand-offs trying to get the offensive moving downhill and the defense being in a bad position.
Each player gets two to three dribbles to attack before going into the next dribble hand off. If you get lazy or too eager on defense they will blow by you. If you try to cheat and go under, the shooter will elevate before you have a chance to recover.
With great guards sometimes it is best to let them go and be “dogs” on offense, sniffing out the weaknesses on the defense.
Final Thoughts and Projections
St. John’s sitting at the 7th seed right now brings a lot of doubt at any true tournament run. That 10 seed will be a tough matchup in round one followed by a 2nd seed two days later.
Teams like this really open your eyes to how tough it is to make it to the sweet 16. This team feels like a no brainer to put into the sweet 16 with their record and style of play.
This is one of those teams I will have in the sweet 16, yet I will expect them to exit in the first or second round. They are 2-3 in one possession games, and will probably be in tight spots late. Can their defense hold? Can their offense make huge shots late?
St. John’s is one of the biggest wildcards in the 2025 NCAA Tournament. Their one on one style of play usually dies early in March.
Rowan Donaghey, Sports Reporter and Betting Analyst for Stare Down Sports. You can follow him on X via @RowanDonaghey
Follow Stare Down Sports on X for all of the latest news and updates @StareDownSports
March Madness, Gonzaga Bulldogs
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