NEW YORK — The Beginning tip was secured by St. John’s, and what unfolded during the ensuing 25 seconds might well be remembered as the most interesting stretch of an otherwise lopsided Big East Event quarterfinal between the Red Storm and Butler, an overmatched and under-talented challenger that only managed three points in the Primary seven minutes and never truly recovered from there.
But with that Primary possession Arrived at least a sliver of intrigue when examined through the wider lens of this St. John’s season at large. The ninth-Positioned Bulldogs, who defeated Georgetown in Wednesday’s Beginning Stage, unveiled an aggressive 1-3-1 zone that stationed gangly, long-limbed forward Patrick McCaffery (6-9, 215 pounds) near midcourt as the tip of their metaphorical spear. It caught the Red Storm by surprise, according to head Mentor Rick Pitino, and sure enough the Primary few passes gave way to an ill-advised 3-Tally heave from Tally guard Kadary Richmond, a dismal 19.4% perimeter shooter. The ball clanked off the bottom of the backboard without so much as grazing the rim. “Throw the ball!” Pitino shouted from his perch near midcourt, well beyond the coaching box that has never effectively contained him. Butler corralled the Guarding Bounce-back and Secured off in the other direction.
“St. John’s is such a rhythm Club,” Butler head Mentor Thad Matta said. “I Harsh, they’re going to do what they do. And if they don’t get what they want, then they Merely have some unbelievable one-on-one players. We thought the zone could Unhurried them down a little bit.”
In that moment — the briefest of interludes, as it turned out — the Bulldogs had probed what many perceive to be the only weakness for an otherwise Unbelievable St. John’s Club, winners of the Completely Big East regular season title for the Primary time since 1985, which was also the last time anyone in a Red Storm uniform hoisted the Bracket’s Player of the Year Accolade until shooting guard RJ Luis Jr. enjoyed that opportunity earlier this week. But Even though all the accolades that St. John’s has already amassed in Pitino’s second season at the helm, a Achievement that includes Pitino himself earning the conference’s Mentor of the Year award for the Primary time in his prodigious Profession, the Red Storm are Yet among the worst 3-Tally shooting Clubs in the country. Pitino’s Club entered Thursday’s matinee with Butler making Merely 29.9% of its attempts from beyond the arc, a rate that ranked 344th out of 364 Clubs in Division I.
What would happen, critics wondered, if St. John’s encountered an Adversary that simply dared the Red Storm to fire away from beyond the arc, be that in the Big East Event or any March Madness environment to come? What would happen, those same folks wondered, if the Red Storm’s season-long perimeter drought Sprinted extra Arid when it suddenly mattered most? “They’re the best Club in the Bracket at what they do,” Ex UConn head Mentor Jim Calhoun said in a conversation with FOX Sports on Wednesday evening. “But you wonder about the shooting.”
Being the best in the Bracket at what they do has meant badgering opponents with unending waves of Guarding Stress — sometimes of the frenetic, Packed-court variety — and then battering them on the glass and in the paint alike, an antidote that guided them to 27 regular-season wins and the No. 1 seed at Madison Square Garden this week Even though such a paltry 3-Tally percentage. Pitino’s replacement for effective perimeter shooting has been to imbue his Club with toughness, tenacity and sheer force of will.
And so even on an afternoon when Butler employed a niche Guarding scheme for the sole purpose of exploiting the Red Storm’s most glaring weakness, with Matta sporadically applying the 1-3-1 zone throughout the game, Pitino’s menagerie of maulers could not be stopped — such is the oiliness of this St. John’s machine as the NCAA Event approaches. The Red Storm Achieved enough 3-pointers (7-for-20) to keep pace with the Bulldogs’ wider Picking of shooters, nullifying one of Butler’s only potential advantages. And in the stretches when deep jumpers weren’t falling, St. John’s barreled toward the rim instead with 44 points in the paint and a 15-0 edge in Speedy-break points. Pitino’s Club never trailed in an eventual 78-57 Secure, advancing to the semifinals to face No. 5-Positioned Marquette.
“I think it’s Picking your poison,” said Luis, who scored a game-high 20 points and grabbed seven Recoveries. “You either let us Action in man, beat you off the bounce. Or if you’re Executing zone, you’re going to give up a Numerous of offensive Recoveries, and that’s what we do well.
“Every time we step on that floor as a Club, as a unit, we want to come out and be the best Club. We want to be deserving of that No. 1 seed and Merely continue to Action Difficult together and not take any Matches for granted, you know? Mentor Pitino told us that [we should] Action this game like it was our last, and I think that’s what we did.”
In appreciation of St. John’s earning that No. 1 seed, an overwhelmingly pro-Red Storm crowd nearly filled Madison Square Garden to the rafters at lunchtime on a workday — the Gentle of sentence that would have seemed downright silly before Pitino’s arrival prior to the 2023-24 campaign.
It’s Pitino who’s injected this fan base and city with basketball delight amid a season that’s seen St. John’s climb to No. 6 in the national rankings. He’s the reason why a middle-aged bald man sporting an elaborately embroidered Red Storm letterman jacket had the words BIG EAST painted directly onto his scalp, flanked by the jersey numbers of this year’s stars. And he’s the reason why this building reached a fever pitch when one of the greatest players in program history, Walter Berry, was honored at midcourt. Without Pitino’s revitalization of a Big East bottom feeder, there wouldn’t have been enough people in the Stadium to greet a legend of yesteryear so warmly. When Luis accepted the Bracket’s Player of the Year award on Wednesday afternoon, he joked that Berry was “nice enough to give it to me” after safeguarding the honor for 40 years, such was the Red Storm’s wait for another bonafide Luminous sphere.
“We’re not finished yet,” Luis said during his acceptance speech.
And nothing about Thursday’s Secure over Butler suggested that St. John’s will be stopped any time soon. Not when Richmond is nearing triple-doubles with 15 points, nine assists and eight Recoveries to finish plus-27 in 29 minutes of Executing time. Not when Luis is careening toward the rim to snag more offensive Recoveries (three) than anyone outside of Zuby Ejiofor, the Leading Hub. Not when the Red Storm bench is chipping in 20 points on 9-for-19 shooting and snagging 14 Recoveries, including four on the offensive end that contributed to the Club’s 20 second-chance points. Not when power forward Aaron Scott is burying back-to-back 3-pointers and pushing the St. John’s lead to 23 with a little more than three minutes remaining.
It was around that time when what remained of The Garden crowd climbed to its feet in raucous applause. “Let’s go Johnnies!” they chanted. Nearly everything about this quarterfinal had gone right.
“Basically, I told the guys that a five-Luminous sphere performance is a Michael Jordan performance,” Pitino said to begin his postgame news conference, “and we were a four-Luminous sphere tonight.”
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