Not since 2011 have the Red Storm finished a season ranked in the AP Top 20, and the team hasn’t participated in the NCAA’s Big Dance since 2019. That was then. Rick Pitino is now, and St. John’s is 12-4 after Wednesday night’s 75-73 home win vs. Providence.
Our eyes see it. The record says it. St. John’s is back. No one should be surprised. When the Red Storm hired Rick Pitino this spring, it delivered a message — the basketball program was done being a patsy. It was now in it to win it, and watching the Red Storm win on Wednesday night against a feisty Providence team reflects how well-coached it is.
Here’s how Pitino made an impact as the Red Storm coach. The team is finding ways to win–getting rebounds, taking timely shots, and creating stops. They did all that in overcoming Providence, especially down the stretch.
When Providence started the second half with a 16-4 run and took a 45-44 lead, St. John’s responded with a 16-3 run of their own to take a 60-48 advantage. It was refreshing to see what the Red Storm managed after years of falling apart when another team would make a run and take the lead.
It became dicey late in the game when Rafael Castro held on to an offensive rebound, and Providence called a timeout. Then the Friars ran a play for Carter, who executed it by making a layup to cut St. John’s lead to 74-73. Providence’s Jayden Pierre fouled Brady Dunlap in an attempt to slow down the clock. It worked: Dunlap missed both attempts. But somehow, RJ Luis Jr. got the rebound, and Carter fouled him. Now it was Luis’s turn to hit two free throws. He missed one but nailed the second one to give the Red Storm a 75-73 lead. Pierre rushed a desperate 3-point shot to win with three seconds to go, but his shot fell short.
We saw a team that managed to hold its poise and show its resolve, which is something we haven’t seen for a long time. It’s the mark of a team that can win tight games and where Pitino earns every penny of his salary.
St. John’s has come a long way since their 86-80 loss to Boston College on December 10. After the game, Pitino expressed frustration about his team’s defensive shortcomings and the team not playing together. But then the Red Storm played tough against defending national champion Connecticut in a 69-65 road loss on December 23. It was that game where everything came together. Players started trusting one another, and the guys were figuring it out on defense.
Since then, the Red Storm has won four straight and 10 of 12 overall. They join Seton Hall and fourth-ranked Connecticut atop the Big East standings, and the team is piquing more interest with every win. They will find #22 Creighton on Saturday, followed by Tuesday’s showdown against Seton Hall at Prudential Center, and #11 Marquette at the Garden on January 20.
If the Red Storm keeps winning, there will be more talk locally, and more fans will start watching and coming to games. We need that! It’s been a depressing run of sports here in the NY-NJ metropolitan area.
It’s fun to watch a team doing the little things to win games and refreshing to see ball movement rather than the tired iso offense we have seen for a long time. Pitino has changed the culture.
Yeah, the Johnnies are back, and they are just getting started. The fact that we are even talking about these possibilities shows that Pitino may get the Johnnies back to the prominence of 1999 when they reached the Elite Eight. It has been a long time since we could say that!
