Unfortunately, St. John’s was unable to clinch their portion of the Big East Regular Season title at home on March 3rd against Georgetown during senior night — nonetheless, the Johnnies are back-to-back Big East regular season champions for the first time in 40 years, the icing on the cake for the impact Pitino has had on the program.
It was a grind for the Red Storm, edging out Seton Hall on the road to end their regular season with a 72-65, which earned them a share of the title, and then becoming outright champions after a miraculous Marquette upset over UConn on March 7, one of the biggest Big East upsets in recent memory.
Last season, when Pitino put the Red Storm back in the national spotlight on March 1st, confetti was able to fall at Madison Square Garden. A surreal scene at the Mecca — a 71-61 victory that featured tears, triumph, a city that hadn’t seen success since the 1986 Miracle’ Mets.
“We wanted to win the Big East,” said Pitino after successfully defeating Seton Hall last season. “We have our goals, but even though we had our goals, I kept telling them about getting on Broadway. I said, ‘Once you get on Broadway, the pressure’s there because your show could get canceled. We didn’t want to hear anything about a tie.”
A year later — St. John’s again, finds themselves muting the talk of any ties, holding the crown in a power-five conference next to teams like Arizona, Duke and Florida. However, this year has a different spice to it.
To set the scene, St. John’s found themselves in the drivers seat of a Big East clash against Providence at MSG on Jan. 3, leading by nine with six minutes to play. Instead, the Red Storm ended the game by being outscored 22-7, leaving Madison Square Garden silenced.
“We’re going to lose games, this isn’t last year’s team,” said Pitino after the loss. “We have high hopes, but I’m noticing we have a team with a lot of frailties.”
It was the season’s tipping point. Just a season after making history by winning the Big East, the team would likely sit in the driver’s seat to another successful UConn team — or so, everyone thought.
The Red Storm strung together 12-straight wins, including a stunning victory at home against the Huskies on Feb. 6, one that put the entire country back on the Johnnies hype-train. Looking to make it four-straight wins over Dan Hurley’s bunch, St. John’s traveled to Hartford, where immediately, they were humbled — snapping their 12-game win streak by delivering one of the worst games in program history.
However, this didn’t stop St. John’s, more adversity was faced, coming right off the 32-point loss with a successful 89-57 victory.
Following the victory over the Wildcats, the Red Storm needed to just win out, doing so, and earning a their share of the Big East regular season title.
We have won back-to-back championships with two different teams,” said Pitino following their 72-65 win over Seton Hall on March 6th. “That’s not easy to do. There’s been one common denominator, and that’s the young man to my left, Zuby Ejiofor.”
Ejiofor has been the driving force to the Johnnies success, playing up to his preseason Big East Player of the Year honors, averaging 16 points a game, along with seven rebounds, four assists and two blocks. Over the last three games, the big man has stepped up when needed the most, averaging 20 points along with seven rebounds and five assists, adding a triple-double in the win over Villanova, being just one of four St. John’s players ever to do so.
In the win over the Pirates on March 6th, Ejiofor led the way even while finding himself in foul trouble, scoring 21 points in 22 minutes, along with three blocks.
“I still get chills each and every time, stepping on the floor and going out there and performing at a high level, for my teammates, for the fans,” said Ejiofor. “When the final buzzer was called and I was able to step off the floor, I was met with some ovations that I pretty much had all year.”
Now, with back-to-back regular season titles added to the collection at Carnesseca Arena, there’s still more gold to be collected. St. John’s has never won back-to-back regular season titles and conference tournament titles, making the tournament, set to kick off on March 11th, even more important.
“It’s still not over, it’s just beginning,” said Pitino. “We have won back-to-back championships with two different teams, and that’s not easy to do.
The opponent for the Red Storm’s March 12 quarterfinal contest at 12pm is still up in the air. If Providence were to defeat Georgetown tonight — they would play the winners of Marquette-Butler. With a Georgetown win, they’d play the winners of Butler-Providence.
