St. John's is a bad basketball team by any measure. It was riding an 11-game losing skid and was winless in its conference. It's the only winless team in Big East conference play. That includes a 17-point home loss to DePaul, a 9-13 team that is next to last in the Big East with a 2-8 record.
Somehow, that crummy St. John's team rallied from a first-half deficit to outscore the No. 4 Duke Blue Devils by 11 in the second half en route to an 81-77 upset win. It's Duke's second loss in the past eight days.
The loss is immaterial to Ohio State's basketball fortunes but it does underscore that somehow everyone is suspect in college basketball this year. A mediocre Butler team beat No. 1 Villanova by eight points. Virginia has that odd defeat to a 16-6 WVU team on its record. Somehow Purdue is the No. 3 team in the country despite losing to Western Kentucky. The defending national champion Tar Heels are somehow 16-6, including a loss to Wofford.
In other words, Ohio State picked a great season to be punching far above its weight as a team with a fighting pulse in 2017-18. No one is that great. Ohio State is at least competitive.
