The phone rang. Chris Mullin answered. An old friend shared his plans for Tuesday evening.
“I’ll be at the Garden tonight to watch you,” John McEnroe said.
Mullin told him St. John’s was playing in Queens.
“I’m coming anyway,” McEnroe said.
Mullin smiled, recounting the conversation.
“He doesn’t come out of the city much,” Mullin said. “So it says a lot.”
The former tennis star was joined by more than 5,600 others, filling every available inch at Carnesecca Arena. The Red Storm’s biggest game of the season, thus far, was the biggest hint of what would come next, of what could come in March.
Despite a 12-0 start — the program’s best since Mullin was a sophomore — it was unclear what was real. The polls had cast their judgment, leaving the Red Storm unranked all season because of a non-conference schedule ranked 343rd in the nation by the analytics site, kenpom.com, and underwhelming performances against inferior foes.
Despite the most talented team of Mullin’s coaching tenure, the campus legend had failed to produce a winning season in his first three years. Just last season, a Red Storm roster talented enough to take down No. 4 Duke and No. 1 Villanova dropped its first 11 Big East games.On so many nights over the past three seasons — and past two decades — it was easy to pass up a trip to the old gym. On this night, a sellout crowd came to Queens with hope of watching the beginning of something special.
They will be back — if seats are available.
St. John’s (13-1, 1-1) began printing bandwagon passes Tuesday night, and granting permission to imagine what is possible following a dominant 89-69 win over No. 16 Marquette (11-3, 0-1), which marked the Red Storm’s largest margin of victory against a ranked team in two decades.
It is what was envisioned when Mullin returned home. It is what the coach always believed would come.
“That building tonight was a big factor, I really believe. They came out, not only the support for our guys, but excitement for what’s going on,” Mullin said. “I think they realize it’s been a progression. They’ve watched it. They’ve watched some of our players individually grow. When you do it that way, there’s a buy-in. People feel connected to it. It’s authentic. It’s genuine.”
Following Saturday night’s devastating loss to Seton Hall, St. John’s played with an intensity to never allow a score to be close enough to let an official affect an outcome again.
Every 3-pointer felt like it would fall in. Every unselfish pass seemed to set up another. All five starters finished with double-digit points. Shamorie Ponds played like the best player in the Big East. Justin Simon helped shut down Markus Howard, the best scorer in the Big East.
The celebration was capped with a series of late dunks, thrown down between a few blinks. Marvin Clark II stood at mid-court, waving his arms towards the crowd, as his coach did earlier.
“I was just feeling jubilation for our fan base,” Clark said. “Even before I got here, this program was going through it. I just wanted to show them appreciation that, hey, this is your labor, the years that you guys have continued to be loyal to this program, it’s finally paying off. Now they have a team this season that they can really support.”
The win ended Marquette’s eight-game win streak. It should end the eye rolls attached to the Red Storm’s record, too.
“They’re an outstanding team. … Offensively they’re a juggernaut,” said Marquette coach Steve Wojciechowski, whose team had beaten three top-14 squads this season. “A lot has been made of what they’ve done up to this point. We’ve played at least a half dozen, ‘high-major, big-time teams,’ and they’re every bit as good, if not better, than the teams we’ve played.
“They get so much crap about their schedule … but they’re one of the top 20 teams in the country.”
Now, it’s easy to believe.