By Miguel Mike Medina
Photo Credit: Denis Poroy-Imagn Images
No. 5 St John’s Red Storm men’s basketball team is heading to the Sweet 16 after a game-winning buzzer by Dylan Darling. St John’s wins 67-65 over the Kansas Jayhawks.
Darling scored just one basket throughout the entire game. He took four shots in total. The last one turned out to be the most meaningful. St. John’s fans will remember this game for a long time. Darling has grown to become a fan favorite. He’s capable of producing much more effort for St John’s.
When Darling made the basket, the teammates mobbed him. Coach Rick Pitino had zero emotion. Pitino is old school. He’s content with the win, but there’s more work to be done. It’s great to see the coach still wearing a suit and tie for basketball games.
As for Darling, his confidence will only grow from here as the Johnnies will face the Duke Blue Devils in the Sweet 16. Pitino wants to beat Duke badly. He hasn’t forgotten the Christian Laettner shot in 1992, when Pitino was the coach for the Kentucky Wildcats.
Pitino knows how to coach his players. Darling struggled all game long and didn’t shy away from the big moment.
“I just can’t imagine a player today, in today’s world, with all the scrutiny, wanting the ball when he’s shooting terribly,” Pitino said. “It was the only play we could run, or you could try to throw it into the high post area. But as soon as he said to me to run power, I knew he could get to the rim because he hadn’t done a damn good thing the whole night, so I knew he was going to do it.”
St John’s could’ve lost this game after outplaying Kansas for most of the game. The Jayhawks went on a 16-4 run in 4:43 at the end of the second half. Senior Bryce Hopkins had himself quite a game. Hopkins made six threes for St John’s, finishing with 18 points.
The Red Storm punched their first ticket to the Sweet 16 since 1999. Pitino will make his 14th Sweet 16 appearance as a coach. He’s one of three coaches to make the Sweet 16 with four programs.
Miguel Mike Medina is the publisher of The MMM Journal. He can be reached at medinamiguelmike@gmail.com and themmmjournal@gmail.com
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