Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic <\/p>\n
Seven months ago, this version of St. John\u2019s met for the first time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was then, in the middle of the summer, that the bar was set incredibly high.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of the goals was a Big East regular-season championship.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It can become a reality Saturday afternoon at what will, unquestionably, be a raucous and rocking Madison Square Garden. With a win over local rival Seton Hall, the seventh-ranked Johnnies (25-4, 16-2) will clinch the school\u2019s first outright Big East title since 1984-85.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is what we spoke about when we all came together in July,\u201d Kadary Richmond said. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to have this feeling that it\u2019s right there for us to take. Nobody is giving it to us. We\u2019re not hoping or wishing for it. It\u2019s all up to us to go out there and take it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
An on-court celebration is expected, one that will include confetti, a trophy presentation and photos if St. John\u2019s prevails. The Red Storm is not going to cut down the Garden nets, however. <\/p>\n
Coach Rick Pitino doesn\u2019t believe any of his teams have ever done that after winning a regular-season championship, and his players voted unanimously to bypass that celebratory tradition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a collective decision, everybody agreed it\u2019s not really the end of the season,\u201d tri-captain Zuby Ejiofor said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t really accomplished a lot as of yet. Saturday is a great opportunity, obviously. We still got Marquette to worry about [after this game]. That\u2019s where our mind is at, just taking care of business Saturday and moving on.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Said Pitino: \u201cWhatever the players want, I\u2019m behind \u2014 unless it\u2019s not practicing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That unflinching focus has been a major part of this group\u2019s success. It hasn\u2019t let a Top 10 national ranking or the school\u2019s most wins in 25 years sidetrack them. It\u2019s always been about the next game, players frequently talking about the following opponent moments after a win. That mature approach has enabled St. John\u2019s to enjoy such a magical year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Johnnies haven\u2019t lost at full strength since New Year\u2019s Eve and are a projected No. 3 seed, according to BracketMatrix.com. That would be their highest seed since No. 2 in the 2000 NCAA Tournament. That was also the last time St. John\u2019s won a tournament game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The foundation was set a year ago, in Pitino\u2019s first season as St. John\u2019s coach. The team hit its stride too late, falling painfully short of the NCAA Tournament. That was in part because of six bid-stealers, teams that wouldn\u2019t have reached the dance if not for winning their conference tournaments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a pretty sad moment, not just for us, but everybody [at the school] as well,\u201d Ejiofor said. \u201cObviously, the seniors who didn\u2019t get a chance to come back to college again. Now to see where we\u2019re at, at this moment in our collegiate careers, being able to play for an outright championship, [feels great].\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
St. John\u2019s has become a national story, New York City\u2019s lone high-major basketball program enjoying a renaissance under Pitino, the Hall of Fame coach. It has sold out its last two games at the Garden, against Creighton and Connecticut, and Saturday could be a third consecutive full house. <\/p>\n
There were high expectations entering the season, but not to this extent, at least not from outside of the school. The Johnnies were unranked in the preseason and picked to finish fifth in the Big East by the league\u2019s coaches.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They have nevertheless taken off as the class of the Big East, and some experts now consider them a Final Four contender. But before the school\u2019s first trip to the main draw of March Madness in a decade, there is a regular-season title to be won.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great feeling to know we\u2019re right there, it\u2019s so close we can grab it,\u201d leading scorer RJ Luis Jr. said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a great ride, it\u2019s been a great season, and we just want to continue building on to that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Seven months ago, this version of St. John\u2019s met for the first time.\u00a0 It was then, in the middle of the summer, that the bar was set incredibly high.\u00a0 One of the goals was a Big East regular-season championship.\u00a0 It can become a reality<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":226046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-226045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226045"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":226047,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226045\/revisions\/226047"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}