Somehow, this splendid afternoon of college basketball had been reduced to a single, simple element. There were 4.3 seconds left. Marquette led St. John’s, 73-72, despite leading by as many as 13 just 5 ½ minutes earlier.
There were 12,214 inside Madison Square Garden, but now they made the old gym sound full, like there were a few extra thousand hiding in the aisles. Marquette’s Tyler Kolek missed a foul shot. Joel Soriano grabbed the rebound.
St. John’s called timeout.
Marquette called timeout.
Maybe this was one for the folks who believe the endings of college basketball games are interminable, crawling to the close slower than a Scorsese movie, but this was also for those who still believe the regular season is more than just a four-month layup-line, too. All you had to do was listen. All you had to do was see. This mattered plenty to Marquette.
It mattered even more to St. John’s. A week ago the Johnnies had their hearts crushed at Creighton, losing at the buzzer when a shot didn’t fall and a whistle wasn’t blown. Three nights later they were ransacked by Seton Hall.
Twenty minutes of real time earlier, it looked like Marquette was going to finish off a bookend beating, since they’d outscored the Johnnies by 23 points after St. John’s had surged to a 34-24 lead late in the first half.
“Every game from here on out is important,” said Daniss Jenkins, who spent the day mixing terrific (16 points) and trouble (six turnovers). “We know what we’re playing for each and every game, and every game is as important as the last one.”
Somehow, they’d come back. Somehow, with Marquette playing at the very top of its game, with Kolek seemingly at the peak of his powers, they had a 14-2 run in them. A 71-58 game had become 73-72. Now the Johnnies had a chance to beat the 17th-best team in America, and maybe etch in permanent ink a coming bid to the NCAA Tournament.
“Our guys showed amazing character down the stretch to fight back,” St. John’s coach Rick Pitino would say later. “Great effort by our guys.”
“It showed a lot of maturity,” said RJ Luis Jr., whose 20 points and three steals were essential to the cause.
All along, the Johnnies and the truest of their believers had circled this stretch of season, understood we would learn so much about them as they stacked eight games against Villanova (twice), Providence, Creighton, Seton Hall, Marquette, Xavier and UConn into a 28-day stretch. They’d started it 2-2.
Now they had a shot at a statement win that would resound, that would strengthen their credibility among their own fans and enhance their resume with the NCAA selection committee. Most bracketologists had the Johnnies in the 8-9 range, which keeps them out of Dayton. Their analytics are sound. They generally pass the eye test, with Tuesday in Newark being the lone exception.
But at some point, if you want to be truly good, and you don’t want to sweat Selection Sunday, you have to beat good teams. They’d come close against UConn and Creighton. They beat Villanova and Providence — though the Wildcats are defined more by reputation than accomplishment now, and the Friars are down their best player, Bryce Hopkins.
There are no asterisks when you’re building a dossier across the winter, you happily accept every win and hurry along to the next game. Some mean more than others. This one would’ve left a mark, an impression. Still work to go. But a nice pelt for the wall.
Finally, the players returned to the court. And it was impossible not to notice what Marquette coach Shaka Smart opted to do. Thirty-two years ago, Pitino made one of the most debated strategic decisions of his life, choosing not to guard the inbounds play when his Kentucky Wildcats, up 103-102 in overtime, decided not to guard an inbounds play with 1.8 seconds left in an NCAA East Region final against Duke. Grant Hill had an unimpeded sight line to Christian Laettner … and, well, you know.
But Smart knew if he left Chris Ledlum unguarded inbounding, and let his five players guard the Johnnies’ other guards and forwards, it would force Soriano, at 6-foot-11, to be their only option to race it up the floor. It would mean once he passed off, the other players would all be closely guarded.
Jenkins got a good shot, but there were hands in his face. It missed. Marquette fans rejoiced, and their players exhaled. St. John’s fans winced, and their players folded their hands behind their heads. Ballgame. A hell of a ballgame.
“There are usually no moral victories, but today was a moral victory,” Pitino said after the Johnnies dropped their third game to three ranked league foes, by a total of six points. “Give Marquette all the credit.”
They’ll do it again Wednesday, at the Garden again, Villanova in the house in what feels like the first must-have game of the Pitino Era. Another fun night at the Garden awaits. See you there.