With a wry smile, Rick Pitino made a simple request of his team at the under-12 media timeout of the first half Sunday, broadcast to millions of households across the country.
“We’ve got to make sure we hit the rim … we can’t shoot airballs,” Pitino said in a sideline interview with Fox.
Even doing that has been a struggle at times this season for the anemic-shooting St. John’s Red Storm, who entered the day in the bottom 25 nationally in three-point percentage and making just over six triples per game. It’s the one hole, the one obvious weakness that could doom the Johnnies’ dream season to a sudden ending in the NCAA tournament next month.
From that moment on, Pitino’s players did him one better against the UConn Huskies. As if SJU wasn’t scary enough to play against because of its vaunted defense and elite athleticism, the Red Storm picked Sunday as the day they’d also heat up from distance.
First, veteran wing Aaron Scott knocked one through. Then freshman Lefteris Liotopoulos less than a minute later. Leading scorer RJ Luis Jr., just a 27% shooter from three this season, drilled three in the first half, including two after Pitino’s midgame prod. By the halftime buzzer, St. John’s had already made eight triples on 16 tries, and what was a 19–18 game entering that timeout went to halftime as a 50–32 Red Storm advantage.
“You play against this team, with that defense and their rebounding … and the pressure they can put on the paint, if they shoot the ball like that from the perimeter, they’re going to be a problem for anyone,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said.
Make no mistake: The three-point shot is still something of a last resort for this St. John’s team, one that in the spirit of being on its way to the program’s first outright Big East title in 40 years is playing a style that might make modern hoops purists cringe. The Red Storm gladly take a bevy of pull-up jumpers from the midrange and opt for brute force and physicality over shooting and finesse. But for St. John’s to complete its storybook season with a deep run in March, perimeter shooting has to at least be a factor … and Sunday’s cruise-control victory was a reminder of just how good the Johnnies can look when it is.
“I just want them to take the [open] shot. I don’t want them to pass them up,” Pitino said. “I try to tell them every single day, if you miss, we’ll erase the miss with defense.”
St. John’s completed a season sweep of the two-time defending champs Sunday in a game that was within single digits for a grand total of 72 seconds in the second half. Consider it the latest sign of Pitino’s Red Storm revival, the (likely) last and perhaps most impressive in a career full of rapid rebuilds for the legendary head coach. Pitino has willed St. John’s to relevance in the most crowded sports market in America and has Madison Square Garden rocking in red in a way few believed was possible just a few years ago. A building nicknamed Storrs South by UConn fans was instead an unquestionable St. John’s home atmosphere, the sellout crowd of just under 20,000 featuring far more Red Storm fans than Huskies. The Pitino effect even brought out Spike Lee, decked out in a scarlet Yankees cap and a St. John’s hoodie in his customary courtside seat.
“I can assure you that we had most of the fans tonight. We did not last year, but it was about 70/30 this year,” Pitino said. “Our fans were there in a big way tonight.”
That home court edge has helped the Red Storm to a perfect 17–0 mark in home games this season. The final home game of the year, next weekend at Seton Hall, has been moved from the smaller on-campus Carnesecca Arena to Madison Square Garden to accommodate the surge of interest, and could end up being the night the Red Storm clinch the outright conference title for the first time since 1985.
“We want this Big East crown badly, not only for the players but for the fans who came back like I never expected,” Pitino said.
The primary concern going forward for a team trending toward a top-four seed in the NCAA tournament? Health. Star guard Kadary Richmond is so banged up that Pitino said he couldn’t even walk to the news conference room postgame, with a pair of pulled groins and “problems all over his anatomy.” Fellow Big East Player of the Year candidate Luis was questionable with groin issues and missed SJU’s previous game against DePaul. Point guard Deivon Smith, who Pitino has raved about for getting his team better shots, has been dealing with shoulder and neck injuries throughout conference play. All three pieces are essential parts of the Red Storm’s winning formula, and if Richmond, in particular, misses any time, things get complicated in a hurry.
But Sunday’s showing, which Pitino called his team’s best 40-minute effort this season, was yet another milestone in a season chock full of them for the Red Storm. The program has been fully resurrected, the fan base fully rejuvenated. And if the Johnnies’ recent three-point shooting surge can continue, New York City can start dreaming about not just a Big East title, but maybe a Final Four run, too.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as St. John’s One Step Closer to First Outright Big East Title in 40 Years.