By WFAN.com
After St. John's crushing loss Sunday to DePaul, is it still a foregone conclusion that the Red Storm will make the NCAA tournament?
WFAN's Gregg Giannotti and Jerry Recco tackled that very question at the start of Monday's "Boomer & Gio" show.
Recco said it was "remarkable" that St. John's lost to DePaul. Not only are the Blue Demons in last place in the Big East, the Red Storm raced out to a 14-2 lead to start the game. The loss was so bad it made the back page of Monday's Daily News.
Here's our @nydnsports back page. @StJohnsBBall #redstorm @DePaulAthletics @Yankees @APSE_sportmedia https://t.co/FU4JDC8LhW pic.twitter.com/50gGEpJ4oM
— Back Page Guy NYDN (@BackPageGuyNYDN) March 4, 2019Recco said that, as of last week, he thought St. John's was likely headed for the Big Dance, but he wasn't so sure they were a lock.
"I know they've won 20 games and it seems like this foregone conclusion that they're in the NCAA tournament," he said. "But with some of the losses they've had, to me, they still had to go finish the season. And yeah, at the end of the day, do I think they'll be in a NCAA tournament team? Yes, I do. But I said, the season's not over yet, and they've been a strange team."
Giannotti said he thinks right now, the Red Storm are looking at being slotted in one of the NCAA tournament's First Four games.
"I think they've probably earned the right to be in the play-in game, which is disgusting, because if you think about it, they swept Marquette, they beat Villanova, they played Villanova well the first time they played them down there and then beat them at the Garden," Gio said. "That Seton Hall loss was one that was very close the first time then beat them again when you needed to at the Garden."
But getting swept by Providence and now DePaul really hurts the Red Storm, Giannotti said.
"You see them keep falling and falling and falling in the Big East standings," he said. "So no, I don't think it's a guarantee any longer, and it's really, really frustrating."
To listen to the full open from Monday's show, in which the guys also discuss the Giants' quarterback options in the draft and the Antonio Brown situation in Pittsburgh, click on the audio player above.
