The white suit and white shoes, according to Rick Pitino, are going back into the closet for the time being. He wasn’t even planning to wear them on Sunday afternoon until his wife insisted that he follow Madison Square Garden’s white-out promotion, which included white T-shirts waiting for all 12,061 patrons on the seatbacks.
Pitino hoofed it a few blocks to his favourite Armani dealer on Saturday. On Sunday, he pranced out to the courtside, resembling the image of John Lennon leading the Beatles across the street from the album cover for “Abbey Road.”
“We knew that when he came out with that suit, we had to win,” Glenn Taylor Jr. chuckled.
Give the clothing credit if you’d like. What the players themselves accomplished over the 40 finest minutes of their season was more significant to the Johnnies’ thrilling 80-66 victory over Creighton, which is ranked fifteenth. It’s no secret that St. John’s has had a small margin for error throughout the season; on Sunday, the team resolved this issue by making almost no mistakes at all.
With 24 assists and just three mistakes, the Johnnies’ offensive line-up was about as ideal as it gets. Jordan Dingle (18 points on 8-for-13 shooting), Daniss Jenkins (27 points, six assists), and Taylor (10 rebounds) all put out outstanding performances for them. They repeatedly drove the Bluejays into heaves at the shot-clock buzzer while harassing them defensively.
More importantly, the Johnnies had answers each time the Bluejays erased double-digit leads, something they haven’t done as many second-half leads have evaporated on them this season.
Jenkins remarked, “It’s amazing to see a game like this.” “Time is of the essence.”
Is it too late? Given that the Johnnies are almost out of games, the calendar truth suggests that it probably is. After their victory on Sunday, their NET rating (which was 49 entering the game) could rise, but their three upcoming games are against the Big East clubs Butler (63), Georgetown (198), and DePaul (320) have the lowest NET ratings. That will not be beneficial.
What will?
Two things will, in fact. It would be good if Sunday was more of a revelation than an anomaly. Coach Greg McDermott of Creighton responded as follows when asked if he believed the Johnnies were an NCAA team:
“Yes, I did this morning. Everyone who tuned in today did so. Although this league is harsh, [St. John’s] can defeat any team at any time.
This gets us to our second point, which may be the most important one to remember from Sunday. Just five days after Creighton destroyed top-ranked Connecticut, the Johnnies should have at least some favourable muscle memory about defeating elite teams at the Garden after defeating a top-15 team in Creighton.
Big East teams have been concerned for years, if not decades, that St. John’s could finally realise what has long looked to be an insurmountable advantage: they get to host the most crucial games of each season on their alternate home court, regardless of how successful or unsuccessful a year is. And they’ve hardly ever taken advantage of it. A few years ago, a very mediocre Georgetown team did. It has been accomplished by UConn and Syracuse, and the Garden simply changed to become Gampel Pavilion West and Carrier Dome South when those tournaments developed.
Nevertheless, St. John’s has silently faded away year after year, even in those odd years when they had a real chance to succeed.
Even though it’s quite likely that they will need to win four games in a row to secure the championship, if they can pull that off this year, it might be their final realistic chance. However, what if they manage to prevail in the regular season and then, let’s say, defeat Creighton in the quarterfinals and DePaul in the first round? They now have 21 victories and one more Quad-1. It puts them back on the same page and potentially even on the same side of the fence for a trip to Dayton.
Pitino remarked of his team’s incredible two hours in the Garden, under the bright lights, in front of an enthusiastic audience that was determined to see them through to the end, “They got a chance today to see what great basketball looks like.” “We must repeatedly aspire to that. Is it too late? Who knows?
Pitino has a role to play. Hey, Lou Carnesecca only wore that tattered old jumper on January 14, 1985, because his wife Mary suggested he keep his cold from turning into the flu that night in Pittsburgh, where it was frigid. That evening, St. John’s prevailed. Twelve days later they defeated Georgetown, ranked first. With the jumper, they continued to win—13 straight times—before losing once more. Looie was well aware not to challenge his wife’s method or her gut feelings.
Perhaps, 39 years later, Pitino need to follow suit.
Be the first to comment