It seems daunting, maybe even unrealistic.
A 6-0 finish after losing seven of nine games?
Don’t tell St. John’s that. Rick Pitino said the Johnnies are intending to win out and his players feel the same way.
“I know some people may say we’re running out of time, but you never know what can happen in these last six games,” point guard Daniss Jenkins said. “We come in, we work hard every single day. We have the greatest coach in college basketball.
“We have a great staff and we all go hard for each other. We’re just working to reach that goal that we have.”
This, of course, was the part of the schedule when St. John’s (14-11, 6-8) was supposed to clean up.
Of the final six games, three are against league doormats Georgetown and DePaul.
Two of the other three, against Seton Hall on Sunday at UBS Arena and No. 17 Creighton next Sunday at the Garden, are at home.
A trip to surprising Butler, who St. John’s manhandled in early January, might be the biggest challenge.
The Johnnies don’t believe they are far off from turning these losses into wins.
As frustrating as the last month-plus has been, of the seven losses, three have come by three points or fewer.
They have led at halftime in four of those games.
The only setbacks that were one-sided were at Seton Hall and home to No. 1 Connecticut.
“We have been in a lot of close games, games we should have won,” forward Chris Ledlum said. “Obviously, that’s how basketball is, but I know we have the ability to do it and now we just have to go out there and do it.
“We control our own destiny.”
Perhaps the biggest issue during this stretch has been the play of Joel Soriano, who came off the bench for the first time this year in Tuesday’s loss at Providence.
Soriano’s play has declined — St. John’s has been outscored by 78 points over the last nine games with Soriano on the floor — after he was such a vital part of the 4-1 start in league play.
Pitino has said he wants Soriano to play with more effort at both ends of the floor, and he was rewarding backup Zuby Ejiofor for how hard he plays by giving him a start.
“He’s trying to find it again, get back to what got him up to this point in his career,” Jenkins said of Soriano. “He’s just trying to figure it out right now. I talk to Joel, I just tell him don’t worry about nothing, don’t think about it too much. It’s just basketball at the end of the day.
“You just got to go out and play. I think sometimes Joel lets too much affect how he plays.”
In many ways, the same can be said about St. John’s, particularly in the second half of so many of these losses.
It is searching for a way to close out a game, to right the ship.
Time is running out.
The turnaround has to start Sunday.
“We know how hard we work every day at practice. We show it in the games, we just don’t show it for 40 minutes,” Jenkins said. “We all know how hard we work and we know who we are. It’s about doing it for 40 minutes and making that the standard of every game with that effort level.
“If we play every game with the effort we just played Providence for 40 minutes, I know we will be fine.”
