The St. John’s basketball team got the monkey off its back last week against Kansas.
After the heartbreak of losing in the Round of 32 last season and not reaching the Sweet 16 since 1999, the Johnnies basked in all the glory of Dylan Darling’s buzzer beater on Sunday night that advanced them to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
The win ended nearly three decades of dreadful basketball that delivered disappointment after disappointment for its fans, and it now gets a crack at the top-seeded Duke Blue Devils with a berth in the Elite 8 on the line.
“This was the final [step] for me, to get St. John's to the next level,” Rick Pitino said after beating the Jayhawks.
Sure, the Hall of Famer would love to add another National Championship to his resume and bring a fourth school to the Final Four, but he will likely have a few more seasons at St. John’s to accomplish that.
Now, he should have a team that’s loose, ready to let it fly, and trying to shock the nation.
“We're not done yet,” he added. “We still have a lot in our tank because we're a very good defensive team. We win with our defense, and we're learning how valuable the 3-point line is now.”
Still, there is no longer pressure on St. John’s for the remainder of the tournament. They did what they needed to do and exorcised its demons.
The Johnnies won the Big East regular season and tournament championships, again, in dominant fashion while getting to the Sweet 16. Its season was a smashing success regardless of the outcome of Friday’s game and while Pitino won’t admit it now, he knows it deep inside.
It’s next opponent, Duke, is certainly under the most pressure of any team left in the field. A program that has seamlessly made the transition from Mike Krzyzewski to Jon Scheyer but is still lacking the National Championship to back up its regular season success.
Duke has seen its season go deeper in each year Scheyer has been its head coach, but the endings have been painful. The Blue Devils lost to No. 11 seed NC State in the Elite 8 two years ago and blew a nine-point lead in the Final Four last season with two of the most dominant rookies in NBA history – Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel – on its roster.
Now, with another National Player of the Year – Cameron Boozer – leading the way it feels like it must be time for Duke and Jon Scheyer to make the postseason breakthrough or those whispers about falling short on the big stage will get louder.
For St. John’s, Friday night should just about basketball.
Nobody respected the Big East this season and very few think the Red Storm have a chance to win as a sizable underdog against one of the title favorites.
The program is back on the national stage and it’s not going anywhere as long as Rick Pitino is its head coach. For the first time all season the Red Storm can play loose and carefree and see what happens, and it might just benefit the Johnnies.