Win over St. John's crucial for tourney hopes
By KATHLEEN O'BRIEN
Assistant Sports Editor
For any dreams of experiencing March Madness to remain intact, the Irish need to defeat the Red Storm of St. JohnÕs Saturday.
One of the main goals for the Irish (12-8, 3-3) this season is to qualify for the NCAA tournament, but the Red Storm (13-4, 5-1) is the next potential Big East barrier on the road to the Big Dance.
"It's very important because they're a ranked team, a ranked opponent, and it will be a chance to improve our record," Irish forward David Graves said. "We need to get to about 20 wins. If we beat [St. John's] and beat Connecticut at Connecticut and beat Ohio State at Ohio State, that will help our RPI rating."
Last season, five Big East conference teams earned a trip to the NCAA tournament. Right now, Notre Dame is tied for fifth place in the conference with a 3-3 league record. St. John's, Miami, Seton Hall and Syracuse all rank ahead of Notre Dame, while West Virginia and Rutgers share the No. 5 spot in the Big East. Just behind Notre Dame is Connecticut (13-4, 2-3), which is nearly assured a postseason bid based on its top-10 national ranking.
But the Irish are not going to be content with just an NIT bid.
"I don't want to go to the NIT," Graves said. "I've been to New York too many times. My goal in coming here was to help get this program back to the NCAA tournament. Hopefully with the help of the crowd and the fans, we'll have a good chance on Saturday."
St. John's is one of four teams ahead of Notre Dame in the Big East standings, despite losing to conference opponent Seton Hall and non-conference foe Ohio State last week. St. John's bounced back from the two losses with a win over Rutgers, a team that beat Notre Dame by 25 points Jan. 18.
The Irish, meanwhile, return to play after a 63-49 home loss to Miami (Fla.) Tuesday.
St. John's earned its No. 23 national ranking with fast-paced play, in part to compensate for its lack of height.
"They're a lot more athletic than we are," senior point guard Jimmy Dillon said. "They like an up tempo game, they're well coached, but they're not very deep. They're going to be hounding us up front a lot, especially Troy [Murphy], and we're going to need to drop back and hit our shots."
Hitting shots is key for the Irish. They beat Pittsburgh last week with better than 60 percent shooting, but when their shooting falters, such as against Rutgers and Miami, so does their winning percentage.
The Irish will turn to preseason All-American Murphy to put them over the top.
"They don't really have anyone who can match up with Troy down low," Graves said. "They're not very big and they don't have a lot of size."
Lavar Postell is the top forward for St. John's. Postell scored 16 points in the Red Storm's win over the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, also coming up with a key block in the final minute of play. However, Postell measures just 6-foot-6, a good four inches shorter than Murphy.
Guards Erick Barkley and Bootsy Thornton spark the Red Storm's offense with their speed. Barkley ranks first in the Big East in steals at 3.15 per game and sixth in scoring at 17.5 points per game.
Last season's contest between the two schools was decided by only four points, a 78-74 victory for Notre Dame.
All Sports Stories for Friday, January 28, 2000
