Five losses in six games have given the Johnnies no more leeway for the NCAA Tournament.

Rick Pitino sounded the alarm for the future of college basketball, and St. Johns in particular, after Saturdays loss to No. 1 Connecticut, raising concerns about how difficult it is now in the Name, Image & Likeness and transfer portal era to build a program.

For a fair chunk of Saturday afternoon, you didnt even need to see the basketball game taking place on the floor of Madison Square Garden.

After all that, St. Johns and Connecticut will play at the Garden next year, Rick Pitino said Friday.

It was a night RJ Luis Jr. would like to forget. St. John's explosive wing struggled mightily in his 14 minutes off the bench in the Johnnies' loss.

St. Johns is expected to be without guard Nahiem Alleyne for a while.The graduate transfer from Connecticut suffered a sprained right ankle in the first half of the Johnnies 73-72 loss to No. 17 Marquette on Saturday.

St. Johns has been close, playing No. 1 Connecticut, No. 9 Marquette and No. 13 Creighton tough in all three meetings. Those narrow defeats were decided by a grand total of six points.

A few weeks after Rick Pitino said he wanted to play the Huskies at Carnesecca Arena next season, he noted that athletic director Mike Cragg has requested to the league that the game be played on the 100th birthday of legendary coach Lou Carnesecca, which is Jan. 5, 2025.

St. Johns has dropped three straight games after Saturday afternoons 73-72 setback to No. 17 Marquette, blowing a 10-point first-half lead.