Men’s Basketball: Panthers look to bounce back from loss to Notre Dame against St. John’s

The Pitt men’s basketball team’s trip to Madison Square Garden on Saturday could… The Pitt men’s basketball team’s trip to Madison Square Garden on Saturday could greatly affect its chances at the same historic venue in two weeks.

Tomorrow at noon, the Panthers travel to New York to play St. John’s (15-12, 5-10) in their last road contest of the regular season.

At the beginning of the week, No. 12 Pitt (21-7, 10-5 Big East) was eyeing a prospective Big East regular-season title. Now, after being drubbed by a sharpshooting Notre Dame team, the Panthers cling to a fourth place spot in the conference.

Finishing in the top four of the conference standings grants Pitt a double-bye during the Big East tournament in NY. As usual, the tournament will be held at Madison Square Garden.

While St. John’s has struggled for most of the season, Pitt has sustained its own share of trouble against the teams in the bottom portion of the Big East standings. Three of Pitt’s five conference losses have come against teams with a losing record in Big East play. The top eight teams get first-round byes in the 16-team tournament.

A slip-up against the Red Storm would drop Pitt into a logjam in the middle of the Big East standings with No. 13 Georgetown, Marquette and Louisville —‚ all three teams are 9-6 in the conference.

As was the case during the first meeting of these teams earlier in the season — a 63-53 Pitt victory — former Schenley High School star and Pittsburgh native D.J. Kennedy will present a problem for the Panther defense.

Kennedy, a high school teammate of former Pitt player DeJuan Blair, is St. John’s leading scorer and rebounder, averaging 14.7 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. During the Jan. 28 contest at the Petersen Events Center, Kennedy grabbed eight boards and scored nine points, but shot only 3-11 from the field.

With Kennedy failing to excel, junior Justin Burrell came off the bench to score 14 points for the Red Storm, a mark that ties his season high. Another bench player, junior guard Dwight Hardy, contributed 12 points in the first matchup.

Despite being absent from the starting lineup, Hardy is the Red Storm’s second leading scorer. He averages 10.6 points per game and has a 39.7 3-point percentage.

The Panthers need a better defensive effort against St. John’s than they turned in Wednesday night against Notre Dame. The Irish shot 55.6 percent from beyond the arc and converted half of their field goal attempts (22-44).

Meanwhile, the Pitt offense sputtered — particularly Gilbert Brown, who scored three points and went 0-5 from behind the 3-point stripe.

St. John’s is attempting to finish a regular season with a winning record for the first time since the 2007-08 campaign. The last time the Red Storm qualified for the NCAA Tournament was 2002.

Despite its recent struggles, St. John’s holds a commanding 33-20 lead over Pitt in the series history. That record includes two winning streaks of seven games, one in the mid-1980s and another in the late 1990s. A win on Saturday would give Pitt its fifth straight victory against the Red Storm.

After St. John’s, Pitt returns home to finish the regular season against Big East bottom feeders Providence and Rutgers.