ST. John’s has spent the season climbing a 9-foot ladder on a 10-foot wall. For all their athleticism, the Johnnies haven’t been able to jump the last foot.
Only against Villanova have the 24-7 Johnnies stumbled over an inferior team. But going into last night’s Big East semifinal against Miami, they had yet to win the game that would convince anyone that they are a Final Four team.
Five times, they have faced either a top 10 ranked club or one that would eventually become a top 10 team. Five times the Johnnies have fallen just short, which tells you they have been right there as often as Forrest Gump, yet with no rights to sell a movie.
The Johnnies had Stanford by 10 points with 6:12 to go and lost by two. They blew a 16-point lead to Purdue when the Boilermakers were supposed to be pretty good, lost to Miami by five in South Florida before the Hurricanes, now ranked ninth, were supposed to be this good. The Red Storm took top-ranked Duke into overtime before falling by four, blew a 12-point second-half lead on Connecticut, lost control down the stretch in the rematch with Miami at the Garden.
There isn’t a more fairly ranked team in the nation than No. 10 St. John’s, consistent in its ability to beat the teams it should and lose to the almost two handful of teams that are better. The Johnnies are quick, athletic, and short, both in physical stature and respect, pending that big win that convinces everybody and themselves that their season isn’t scheduled for an end in the round of 16.
They had another chance last night to prove to themselves they can execute in the half-court in the final minutes of a game against a top-flight opponent. Somewhere along the way, the Big Dance will force the Johnnies to finish those steps.
“The reality is that Miami won the two games,” said St. John’s coach Mike Jarvis. “They beat us, period.
“It was funny watching the first game and rooting for Miami to win. And I say that only because I respect these kids tremendously and I heard them talking about the fact that not only did they want to be in a position to try and win this tournament, but that they would have an opportunity to play the two teams in the league that beat them.
“So I’m with the kids. They have made believers out of me all year.”
You wonder if Miami were looking forward to it quite as hard. The triple jeopardy of these conference tournaments, which are about money and last chances to make the NCAA for teams that mostly haven’t earned them, is that you can beat a team twice and then have to defeat it again for no good reason.
Miami, unranked when the season began, was playing last night for as high as a No. 2 seed in a region not likely to be the East (Maryland looks like a lock after UConn). So, potentially, was St. John’s, which will likely be headed to the West. But it’s unlikely Jarvis fired up the troops by telling them “You want to be looked at as a No. 2 seed or a lousy No. 3 seed? This is the chance to show them!” The Johnnies just needed to win a close one against a good team.
Much has been made of St. John’s seven losses coming by a combined 25 points, crediting the Johnnies for hanging tough, coming back, never giving up. But better execution in the final minutes could have cut two or three losses and 10 of those points off the total. So that’s what the Big East semis were about for St. John’s. About getting it done, finally, against quality, under pressure.