The historic season for the St. John’s basketball team didn’t come overnight. In fact, the Red Storm took its lumps through the first three months of the season before becoming a well-oiled machine, yet there was still a turning point that flipped its season – and it wasn’t necessarily a low moment.
St. John’s victory over Providence in Rhode Island changed a lot of things.
It saw four players get ejected following a skirmish after Duncan Powell clotheslined Bryce Hopkins, a former Friar, on a breakaway and rallied from a small deficit to win the game.
Yet it wasn’t any ordinary win. It brought the team closer together, defending and battling for its teammate.
“I really feel the Providence game changed a lot of things for the positive with us,” Rick Piitno said after the Red Storm’s victory over Kansas which punched the program’s ticket to its first Sweet 16 since 1999. “With everybody getting ejected, and everybody feeling so bad for Bryce Hopkins, that they all rallied around him.”
“I think that was the turning point for us to take it to a new level.”
Yet its first matchup with Providence was the low point of the season for St. John’s, losing at home to a conference foe and dropping to 9-5 on the season, but its Hall of Fame head coach still thinks it was the second matchup between the teams.
“They were so protective of him that I saw something in them I thought was really special, and we started playing great basketball.”
The win over the Friars was its 11th straight, dating back to its loss in early January, and a streak that currently sits at 21-of-22 games.
“I think it made us come closer,” Bryce Hopkins said of his team’s experience in Providence.
“We call came together as a brotherhood and we all had each other’s backs.”
Now, St. John’s will look to pull off the upset against top overall seed Duke in the Sweet 16 on Friday night (7:10 p.m. ET, CBS) in Washington D.C.