St. John's has long road ahead to return to past glory
St. John's Red Storm head coach Rick Pitino gathers his players during a timeout in the second half of an NCAA Big East men’s basketball game against the Connecticut Huskies at Madison Square Garden on Saturday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
There was a shared vision for St. John’s basketball last March when the school hired Hall of Famer Rick Pitino to become the new coach. It was shared far and wide in the Red Storm community — from university president Rev. Brian J. Shanley to Pitino himself to the entire fan base — that the Red Storm would be great again.
On Saturday, it was clear that greatness is still a long way off .
St. John’s faded late against defending national champion and No. 1-ranked Connecticut in a 77-64 Big East loss at Madison Square Garden, and the distance to greatness landed especially hard for a number of reasons beyond it being a fifth loss in six games.
The Garden was sold out the way it always used to be when St. John’s ranked among the college basketball elite. It didn’t matter that 40% of those in attendance were pulling for the Huskies because the atmosphere coursed with energy. And at halftime, the last great St. John’s team — the 1998-99 squad that reached the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight — was feted on the 25th anniversary of the feat.
An entire generation of New Yorkers have grown up without knowing that St. John’s once was great. They saw the banner at the Garden commemorating legendary coach Lou Carnesecca’s 526 victories and they’ve seen the Hall of Famer’s name emblazoned above the entrance of the on-campus arena. But there were plenty in the building who relished the chance to cheer the group that filled that winter with thrills. It was a rousing ''welcome back’' for everyone who made the scene: Metta World Peace (then Ron Artest), Erick Barkley, Bootsy Thornton, Tyrone Grant, Reggie Jesse, Chudney Gray, Donald Emanuel, Albert Richardson, Kareem Syed and head coach Mike Jarvis and his staff.
The 1998-1999 St. John's men's basketball team and staff are honored during halftime in an NCAA Big East men’s basketball game between the St. John's Red Storm and the Connecticut Huskies at Madison Square Garden on Saturday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Daniss Jenkins was the singular standout for the Red Storm on Saturday with 19 points, six assists, three steals and only two turnovers in 36 minutes. Pitino said he “is playing at a high level, but unfortunately, no one else is.”
“We are not a great basketball team,” Pitino said. “This is the Big East. I [went] through it my first year at Providence. It’s just going to take time. We’ve got to get five or six Daniss Jenkins.”
Pitino added that while the Red Storm might not be ready to take down the No. 1 team in the nation, that doesn’t mean they can't beat other teams in the national rankings. “We’ve come close a lot,” he said, “like to Creighton on the road, Connecticut at Connecticut, Marquette.” Those losses to three ranked teams were by a total of six points.
Similar to the situation Pitino inherited at St. John’s, he took over Kentucky and Louisville when those programs had faded from glory. Within four years, he got both to a Final Four. But he also acknowledged that the current landscape — with NIL money and transfers becoming eligible immediately — is very different. Whether it will speed or slow St. John’s arc remains to be seen.
“It's a very difficult time in college basketball — because it's free agency — and now I think what's going to happen is they're going to say everybody can transfer,” Pitino said. “[One] can't really build programs in a culture because everybody leaves.”
In no way does that mean that this St. John’s team isn’t going to win big games or make the NCAA Tournament or make a run in it. The Red Storm are 13-9 overall and 5-6 in the Big East, and while they’ve shown glimpses of their ceiling, they remain 0-4 against ranked teams. There’s enough basketball left that anything is possible. That is unless this run of losses has shaken them badly.
UConn has beaten St. John’s twice, and Huskies coach Dan Hurley sounds like someone who still believes St. John’s is on the road to the original vision.
“This is what you would hope these St. John's-UConn games are, moving forward,” he said. “Obviously, this program here is well on its way to competing at the top of our league and it’s going to be some great battles over the course of the next couple of years here.
“I certainly look forward to it because a great St. John's team at MSG is great for the Big East and it's great for college basketball.”
Right now, however, the Red Storm just aren't there.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
