Although the Hawks missed their goal of making the NCAA tournament, their season marches on as they host the Red Storm Tuesday night in the first round of the NIT. Playing in the NIT is like going to junior prom with a girl you’re just friends with, after the girl of your dreams turns you down because she’s going with some senior whose family owns a mountain house his parents let him use on weekends. However, much as you can still have fun at prom with your friend if you just set your initial heartbreak aside, the NIT can be a useful tool for a college basketball program. The team’s underclassmen gain valuable experience in a one-and-done tournament environment and the program gains some added exposure playing schools they might not normally schedule.
The Hawks enter play following two close games in the A-10 tournament, having defeating Xavier 58-57 before falling to NCAA tournament #5 seed, VCU, 82-79. St. John’s will play its second consecutive game against a Philadelphia City 6 school, after Villanova easily eliminated them in the Big East tournament, 66-53. St. Joseph’s appears to have drawn a favorable first round draw in the Red Storm, as they have now gone 0-4 since the program suspended leading scorer D’Angelo Harrison for the remainder of the season. The team has struggled greatly offensively without Harrison in the lineup, averagine only 54.8 points per game over that stretch, well below their season-average of 65.3 ppg.
The NIT generally comes down to which team has players motivated to make a tournament run to Madison Square Garden, and which team has players too dejected about missing the NCAA tournament to put forth a full effort. The Hawks certainly have the talent to take down a short-handed St. John’s opponent. Also, St. Joseph’s has known for a while that they were not making the big dance barring a miraculous run in the A-10 tournament so there should not have been a huge let-down. Any NIT game will be the final one for the team’s leading scorer, senior Carl Jones; I would look for a big game from him and the rest of the Hawks as the team looks to show why there were such high expectations for this season in the first place.
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