Rick Pitino held his promise: St. John's is back

John Fanta

Badalière and journalist of university basketball

“It is not when, or if it will happen for St. John’s and it will happen importantly.”

These are the lyrics of Rick Pitino on March 21, 2023, inside Madison Square Garden. The fame of fame proclaimed a guarantee that day in New York, and Tuesday evening, the 72-year-old man was a speech man.

Playing their first confrontation among the first 15 of the regular season since January 1999, the 12th classified Johnnies closed marquette n ° 11, 70-64.

In recent years, the thousands of people who have come to Mecca have been conditioned to discover new ways of losing. To live this last sports sorrow from New York. To wonder what could have been and to look for the following moment, they could really be excited for a madness of Mars outside Manhattan. To be hungry for the days of the old Big East.

Well believe it, New York. Your university basketball team is more than relevant on a national scale, and those days that you remember under Lou Carnesecca come back while this team appears in its own story.

For the first time since 1986 – yes, 1986! – The Red Storm has won 15 of its last 16 games. The Johnnies are 11-1 in the Big East for the first time since 1985. That year, they reached the Final Four. Should I say more? How about 17 consecutive home victories, the longest sequence since these days in Louie, when the program won 30 consequences from 1985 to 1987.

Tuesday evening was far from pretty with 42 combined faults and 49 free throws, but this is how this group of Johnnies likes this. The Pitino team, seated in the top five of the country in defensive efficiency, made Kam Jones frustrated for the best part of the night, holding him at 15 points on as many shots. They locked Marquette up to 3 for 15 in the city center in the second half.

In other words, this team defends itself at a level as high as anyone in university basketball.

N ° 11 Marquette Golden Eagles VS No. 12 St. John’s Red Storm made salient | Fox College Hoops

With the game equally with less than five minutes to do, Kadary Richmond, from Brooklyn, has intensified many times. He delivered 18 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists, continuing his recent increase in what is now a sequence of nine consecutive victories. RJ Luis paid 17 points and 11 rebounds, while Zuby Ejiofor, the chief of the clubhouse for the most improved improved player, had 13 and 13 to load the red storm with a bounce advantage of 50-28 .

Physical. Defense. Hardness. New York basketball.

St. John’s is back, won nine consequences and the next one obtains Uconn on Fox this Friday at 8 p.m. HE in Storrs.

What Pitino does is simply remarkable and has produced Rugments of MSG that the building has not seen for a regular game of the Red Storm for very, very long.

John Fanta is a national basketball and writer for Fox Sports. It covers sport in a variety of capabilities, from the call for games to FS1 to serve it as a main host on the digital network of Big East to the supply of comments on the field of the 68 media Network. Follow him to @John_fanta.

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