St. John's coach Kim Barnes Arico hopes that her young team is finally starting to mature.
Coming off one of the best years in program history, the Red Storm were primed for success this season. With four starters back - led by a stellar sophomore class - St. John's was poised to make a run in the Big East.
Instead, the Red Storm (14-5, 3-3) have struggled to find consistency. Even as they won 12 of their first 13 games, it wasn't in dominating fashion. St. John's had to rally past Arkansas State and couldn't pull away from Nicholls State until the second half.
''We had a sense of security because we came back and started really strong in the non-league. We got comfortable and lost that edge that we had going into games,'' Barnes Arico said. ''We thought we would just show up and win.''
That inability to put together a full game finally caught up with the Red Storm when they lost to Maryland in the finals of the Terrapins tournament in late December. That was the first of four straight defeats that was capped by an embarrassing 32-point loss to No. 2 Connecticut last Wednesday.
Even with his team winning relatively easily, Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma was impressed with how far the Red Storm have come under Barnes Arico.
''For them to be a top-20 team last year and this year, that might be taken for granted at other places, but shouldn't be here,'' Auriemma said. ''The program they have and reputation they are building far and away is the best its been in 20-something years.''
St. John's has shown signs of coming out of its funk. The Red Storm ended their skid with a 10-point victory over Seton Hall on Saturday before routing Cincinnati 63-34 on Tuesday.
Against the undermanned Bearcats, St. John's jumped out to an 11-3 lead before going scoreless over the next 5 minutes. Cincinnati clawed back to within 11-10 midway through the half before St. John's used a 19-1 run to close the period and seal the win.
It was the Red Storm's most complete effort this season.
''I think today was a positive. I'd like to continue to improve,'' Barnes Arico said. ''We got caught up with what we did last year and our ranking and got away from what got us here.''
The true test to see if the Red Storm really have turned the corner will come Sunday, when they visit No. 11 Notre Dame. St. John's upset the Irish last season at home before falling to them in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament.
Winning a road game against a ranked team would be a huge step for the Red Storm. Over the last 18 years, the Red Storm have only won three games against Top 25 teams on their opponents' home floor. The last came against Pittsburgh in 2007.
''It would be tremendous for us to go to Notre Dame and get the win,'' Barnes Arico said. ''Our focus is really on ourselves, though, and playing well for 4 minutes at a time.''
It would have been easy to blame the losing streak on an injury bug that has hampered the Red Storm over the last month. Junior forward Da'Shena Stevens suffered a concussion in the middle of December while sophomores Nadirah McKenith and Shenneika Smith have been battling an assortment of injuries.
The Red Storm haven't been able to practice with a full squad all season. It got so bad that in a victory over Southern Mississippi, they had to finish the final 2 minutes of the game with only four players.
''It's been really an interesting year,'' Barnes Arico said. ''I don't know if there's been a practice when everyone's been healthy.''
Stevens refused to use the injuries as an excuse.
''Our freshmen from last year are higher on scouting reports and we're getting adjusted to that,'' she said. ''We did have more of a spotlight coming into different games.''
Being ranked will do that. The Red Storm had been in the Top 25 for 16 straight weeks - the longest run in school history - before falling out of the poll two weeks ago. St. John's reached as high as 16th.
An impressive feat, considering it wasn't long ago that St. John's was at the bottom of the conference. Before Barnes Arico took over in 2002, the Red Storm had won just three Big East games in the previous two years.
Now they've been to the NCAA tournament twice in the last five, including last season's overtime loss to Florida State in the second round.
Barnes Arico hopes that they can make it back to the NCAAs again this season, marking the first time St. John's has accomplished it in consecutive years since 1982-84.
