Roger Rubin: Red Storm need to show strong suit against Villanova
St. John's coach Rick Pitino directs his players in the first half of a Big East men’s basketball game against Creighton at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 21. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Shaken or stirred?
This is the question that hangs in the air about 15th-ranked St. John’s after it was humiliated by No. 6 Connecticut, 72-40, on Wednesday night in Hartford.
Was having their 13-game winning streak snapped in a game in which they missed all 24 of their field-goal attempts in the final 17:28 — and scored 14 points in the second half — so damaging that it’s shaken the confidence of the Red Storm?
Or will they be stirred to prove they remain the team that became the hottest high-major program in the country and that the UConn loss was nothing more than an outlier?
The answer will come in Saturday night’s Big East showdown with Villanova (22-6, 13-4) at the Garden.
“I feel this is the most important game of the three-year span that I’ve been here,” coach Rick Pitino said. “[It’s] this game — because of what happened last game, because of the meaning of being in first place, because of how good they are this time of year [and] to get back to winning — I think there are about seven variables that are crucial for this game.”
“Obviously, we know that people want to see how we respond to this, if we’re able to respond or if we crumble,” Oziyah Sellers said Friday. “I feel like none of us have that [weak] personality and I feel like we’ll be able to bounce back in the right way.”
The Red Storm still are in a great position to accomplish their goal of repeating as Big East regular-season champion and earning the top seeding for the conference tournament. St. John’s (22-6, 15-2) trails UConn (26-3, 16-2) by a half-game in the standings but currently holds the tiebreaker between them based on record against common opponents.
“What we’re still fighting for is right there ahead of us, so we can’t dwell on it,” Dillon Mitchell said. “I think we’ve definitely just turned the page and look forward to tomorrow’s game and coming out with the right energy — picking up where we left off.”
Pitino recalled the 2008-09 season, when he was coaching Louisville in the Big East. Notre Dame defeated the Cardinals by 33 points in mid-February and Louisville responded by winning 13 straight games to reach the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight. He used it to illustrate how a high-performing team can have an off night.
“I am extremely disappointed [and] they’re just as disappointed in the way they played as I am,” Pitino said. “That’s a good thing, it really is. I say, ‘If you lose by one or two or you lose by 30, it’s the same thing — it’s a loss.’ Sometimes an embarrassing loss can even help more than losing by two.
“They know how important this game is,” he added. “They want to prove that that was just a terrible night but they know that they have to play great to beat Villanova.”
The Villanova contest is the annual “White Out” for St. John’s, a game in which Pitino has donned a signature white suit for the occasion in the past. He even had one custom-made in the fall for this occasion. However, when he arrived for Friday’s pregame news conference, he sounded as if he had decided against wearing it because it might not communicate the seriousness of the moment.
I asked him if he wasn’t concerned about sending his team’s fans the wrong message by implying that Wednesday’s loss is having an impact on Saturday’s game. He replied, “I never thought of it that way, so I’ll reconsider tonight.”
But the decider on this matter might be his group of eight who go out weekly to a favorite coffee shop. On Friday morning, they told him they’d all purchased white suits for the occasion.
“They all did it,” he said. “They’re all wearing white suits.”
His team is looking to send a strong message against the Wildcats that Wednesday’s loss will not affect them in Saturday’s game. Pitino will want to send a similar one. The bet here is we’ll see him in the white suit.
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.
