Just three weeks ago, St. John's was the No. 15 team in the nation, a senior-led squad off to the school's best start in nearly three decades, having suffered only one loss through the first six weeks of the season.
D'Angelo Harrison and Phil Greene and Sir'Dominic Pointer and Jamal Branch appeared as if they finally could stop wondering what the NCAA Tournament was like and end the program's three-year drought, but three weeks later, more doubt than ever surrounds their once seemingly inevitable invitation to the Big Dance.
Following Sunday's devastating overtime loss at DePaul — in which St. John's held a 10-point lead over its 9-9 opponent at halftime — the now-unranked Red Storm (12-5, 1-4) have lost four of their past five games, entering Wednesday night's matchup against Marquette (10-7, 2-3) at the Garden.
Having added just one win to the fast start, St. John's is back on the bubble and back to having to prove itself again, beginning against the eighth-place Golden Eagles in the first of a slew of must-win games.
"It doesn't get any easier," coach Steve Lavin said after Sunday's loss. "Tough conference, good league. … We just got to get better."
Thus far, the league has been even better than expected.
Though St. John's has been slipping — to ninth-place in the 10-team Big East — the rest of the conference has been compiling more attractive résumés, with six teams in the conference now possessing higher RPI's than the Red Storm.
Last season, just four teams made the NCAA Tournament from the newly configured Big East, but seven teams are in contention this season, with Villanova the lone lock.
Seton Hall — which beat St. John's — remains ranked, having handed Villanova one of its two losses this season. Georgetown, responsible for the Wildcats' other loss, also could soon be ranked, along with Providence and Butler, with each team earning double-digit votes in this week's AP Top 25 poll. Xavier, another bubble team, has three Big East wins, including victories over Seton Hall and Georgetown.
Last season, St. John's recovered from its slow start in the Big East by winning 11 of its final 14 regular-season games to nearly make the tournament, but last season, the Red Storm weren't running an undermanned and undersized rotation, constantly in foul trouble and vulnerable on the boards.
Panic still is premature, but almost all room for error has been removed.
"We'll be all right," leading-scorer Harrison said. "Let's say we go 10-2, it's all things we can control."
But control quickly can change hands. This season has shown how quickly everything can change.
Harrison, who shot 2-of-10 on Sunday while playing with a strained calf, has been receiving daily treatment for the injury and is expected to play.
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