St. John’s defeated Clayton 79-73 on Sunday, widening the gap between the program, which is the biggest threat to winning the Big East for the first time in 33 years. As a result, Red Storm has taken a two-game lead in league standings, with just five contests remaining in the regular season. In other words, it is suddenly possible that the chances of securing a fully conference championship for the first time since 1985. It means that since 1992, it has at least not been able to gain a share.
In other words, this is happening.
Yes, Rick Pipino is really doing it – and his two years of “doing it” and leading Johnny, snapping stripes and putting up a program I once proud of. With just your eyes, it means taking realistic shots in the last four runs of next month. His Red Storm is 22-4 overall, the updated CBS Sports Top 25 on Monday morning, and 11th, then 11th, and 11th, so Pitino is the wise national coach of the year The type of one-day college basketball rankings with 23 points and 14 rebounds from RJ Lewis Jr. in Sunday’s victory is the type of college basketball rankings that earned 23 points and 14 rebounds from RJ Lewis Jr., another sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden attracted.
“The only thing that really surprises me is that the fanbase is packing the garden,” Pitino said. “These are now the Knicks crowd.”
Certainly they are. It was fun to watch.
St. John’s is the match at DePaul on Wednesday. Then there’s a Sunday rematch at home with UConn. Then it was a road game with Butler (February 26th), a home game with Seton Hall (March 1st), and a regular season finale with Marquette (March 8th). At this point, St. John’s could lose one of these games and at least gain a share in the Big East Championship.
So, again, this is happening.
College basketball doesn’t have one great story just because the sport is too grand for its sake. So I won’t argue that what Rick Pitino is doing at St. John’s is definitely our best story. In Houston. There are wonderful stories all over the place. But we can’t tell the story of the 2024-25 college basketball season before, without spending a bit of time on New York City’s top programs.
The Red Storm is once again very good, with Rick Pitino taking responsibility. It’s amazing. You know, no coach has taken three different schools to the Final Four. But as you know, Pitino has already done it in Providence, Kentucky, Louisville – and he still seems to have enough teams to do it at St. John’s.
