Michael Cohen
University football and university basketball editor
NEW YORK – The opening council was obtained by St. John’s, and what happened during the 25 seconds that followed could well be recalled as the most interesting section of a quarter -final of the Big East tournament otherwise unbalanced between the Red Storm and the Summer, an overly weighted and underlying challenger which only managed three points in the first seven minutes.
But with this initial possession came at least one intrigue ribbon when examined through the broader objective of this season of St. John’s in general. The bulldogs of ninth seeded, who defeated Georgetown in the first round on Wednesday, unveiled an aggressive zone 1-3-1 which parked the long-lasting disguised striker, Patrick McCaffery (6-9, 215 pounds) near Midcourt as the Pointe of their metaphorical lance. He caught the red storm by surprise, according to head coach Rick Pitino, and of course, the first passes gave way to an uprising of 3 poorly informed points of the leader Kadary Richmond, a shooter of 19.4%. The ball closed the bottom of the panel without grazing the rim. “Pass the ball!” Pitino shouted his perch near Midcourt, far beyond the coach box that never contained it effectively. Butler covered the defensive rebound and took off in the other direction.
“St. John’s is such a rhythmic team,” said the butler of butler Thad Matta. “I mean, they will do what they do. And if they don’t get what they want, then they just have incredible individual players. We thought the area could slow them down a bit.”
At that time – the shortest interludes, as it turned out – the Bulldogs had surveyed what many perceive as the only weakness for a team from St. John’s, moreover incredible, the winners of the Big Slight East delusions the regular season for the first time since 1985, which has also been the last time that in a red uniform has known the league player week. But despite all the distinctions that St. John’s has already raised during the second season of Pitino at the helm, a list that includes Pitino himself winning the conference of the conference for the first time in his prodigious career, the red storm is still among the worst 3-point shooting teams. The Pitino team entered Butler’s morning on Thursday, making only 29.9% of its attempts beyond the arc, a rate that ranked 344th out of 364 teams from division I.
What would happen, wondered the criticisms, if St. John’s met an opponent who simply dared the red storm to detach himself from the arc, whether in the Big East tournament or an upcoming March Madness environment? What would happen, these same people wondered, if the drought of the perimeter of the red storm season was very dry when it suddenly had the most? “They are the best team in the league in what they are doing,” said former UCONN head coach Jim Calhoun, in a conversation with Fox Sports on Wednesday evening. “But you wonder about the set.”
Being the best of the league in what they do has meant that opponents were harassing with endless waves of defensive pressure – sometimes frenzied and full variety – then beating them on glass and painting, an antidote that guided them around 27 regular season wins and the head of N ° 1 in Madison Square Garden this week despite a percentage of 3 points. The replacement of Pitino for an effective scope of perimeter was to impregnate his team of tenacity, tenacity and strength of will.
And so even an afternoon when Butler used a defensive niche scheme for the sole purpose of exploiting the most flagrant weakness of the red storm, with Matta sporadically applying zone 1-3-1 throughout the game, the menagerie of Pitino de Maux could not be stopped-such is the oil of this machine of St. John as the NCAA tournament approaches. The red storm made enough 3 points (7 for 20) to follow the rhythm of the wider selection of Bulldogs, canceling one of the only potential advantages of Butler. And in stretching where the deep jumpers did not fall, St. John’s was rather towards the edge with 44 points in the paint and an advantage of 15-0 in fast break points. The Pitino team has never dragged into a possible 78-57 victory, heading for the semi-finals to face Marquette n ° 5.
“I think it’s chosen your poison,” said Luis, who scored a 20 -point summit and took seven rebounds. “Either you let us play in the man, fight with the rebound. Or if you play the area, you will give up a lot of offensive rebounds, and that’s what we do well.
“Each time we walk on this floor in the team, as a unit, we want to go out and be the best team. We want to deserve this seeded n ° 1 and continue to play hard together and not take games for acquired, you know? Pitino coach told us that (we should) play this game as if it was the last, and I think that is what we did.”
In appreciation of St. John’s, winning this seeded n ° 1, an extremely pro-red storm crowd almost filled Madison Square Garden with chevrons at lunchtime one day of work-the type of penalty that would have seemed squarely silly before the arrival of Pitino before the 2023-24 campaign.
It was Pitino who injected this fans base and the city with a basketball delight in the middle of a season that saw St. John’s climb to No. 6 in the national classification. He is the reason why a bald man of average age sporting a jacket of deeply embroidered red storm letters had the words that Big East painted directly on his scalp, flanked by the number of jerseys of this year. And it is the reason why this building has reached a fever area when one of the greatest players in the history of the program, Walter Berry, was honored in Midcourt. Without the revitalization by Pitino of a big feeder thoroughly is, there would not have been enough people in the arena to warmly greet a legend of yesteryear. When Luis accepted the price of the league player of the year on Wednesday afternoon, he joked that Berry was “nice enough to give it to me” after having protected the honor for 40 years, such was the expectation of Red Storm for another Bonafide star.
“We haven’t finished yet,” said Luis during his acceptance speech.
And nothing in Thursday’s victory against Butler, suggested that St. John’s will be arrested anytime soon. Not when Richmond approaches the triple doubles with 15 points, nine assists and eight rebounds to finish more 27 in 29 minutes of play. Not when Luis is heading towards the edge to hang more offensive rebounds (three) than anyone outside of Zuby Ejiofor, the departure center. Not when the RED Storm Bench is peeling off at 20 points on a 9th shooting for 19 and rebounds of 14 rebounds, including four on the offensive side which contributed to the 20 points of the team’s second chance. Not when the electric striker Aaron Scott buries the 3 consecutive points and pushes St. John’s’s advance at 23 with just over three minutes to play.
It was at this time when what remained of the crowd of the garden climbed on its noisy applause. “Let’s go Johnnies!” They sang. Almost everything about this quarter -final had gone well.
“Basically, I told the guys that five-star performance is a performance by Michael Jordan,” said Pitino to start his post-match press conference “and we were a four star this evening.”
Michael Cohen covers university football and university basketball for Fox Sports. Follow him on Twitter @ Michael_Cohen13.
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