St. John’s Red Storm were a consistent no. 1 team in the Big East and they showed why on Saturday when they beat the pesky Marquette Golden Eagles via overtime, 86-84.
The Golden Eagles, sitting at no. 4 in conference, are no pushovers and Red Storm coach Rick Pitino knows that.
This is why he gave his team extra motivation before the tip off as they are now more concerned about preparing for the NCAA tournament after winning the Big East regular season title.
Talking to reporters post-game, the Hall of Fame coach revealed he gave his players extra motivation before they cam to Fiserv Forum.
He hyped them up that the game will be a barometer for their future performances when the road to the national title gets tougher through March Madness.
“We played this game like I told them … I said ‘You’re one and done, you lose this game, your season is over,'” he said. “That’s the way you have to play it to prepare for March Madness.”
He also described the Golden Eagles as among the toughest teams right now.
“You don’t just show up in March and say, OK, here’s what we’re going to do. You prepare for it now. You prepare for it in the Big East tournament. They just did a fabulous job, a tough-(expletive) team. Toughness that you can’t believe.”
Marquette Golden Eagles’s next tough opponent
The Golden Eagles still have a chance to end their regular season on a good note as they still have one game at hand.
They were able to keep up with UConn Huskies and St. John’s although they lost. They are expected to better in the next one when they visit Xavier Musketeers at the Madison Square Garden on Thursday.
The two faced-off on January 18 and Marquette fell in another close one, 57-59.
Marquette and Xavier are currently tied in the conference with 13-7 record although the former got the edge with their 22-9 overall record.
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