Well things have certainly changed in Queens in the past seven days. It was just last week that the Johnnies were coming off a victory against Cincinnati and heading into Gampel to start a tough six game stretch. Now I was not crazy enough to think we would win in Connecticut, but the performance we gave was unacceptable. Early turnovers and sloppy play, led to an easy win for a Huskies team that I feel isn’t much better than the Johnnies. However, I was able to just chalk it up as a loss and move on to the Depaul game, a very winnable game. The game started very sloppy for St. John’s, missing their first nine shots from the field. Luckily, the Blue Demons were not shooting the lights out either, and the Storm held a 24-21 lead at the break. Then came the second half.
The next twenty minutes of basketball proved to be the final breaking point for the St. John’s faithful. After going back and forth for the first 10 minutes, the Johnnies held a 41-35 lead at the 9:13 mark of the second half. This is when the embarrassment starts. Depaul goes on a 16-0 run for the next 5 minutes. Norm calls 2 timeouts throughout this huge run, before the Storm finally get a dunk from Burrell at the 4:29 mark. At this point the score is 51-43 in favor of the Blue Demons, and the game, as well as the fans patience, was all but gone.
I was at the game Saturday afternoon with fellow staff writer Nick Balzo. We chose not to sit in the Jungle student section, preferring to sit on the uncomfortable benches of section 3. This was my first time viewing a game from anywhere but the student section, so I don’t know how the fans up there usually react to the performance on the court. But on this day, every fan shared the same viewpoint. Just looking around, you can see the confusion and disgust on the proud alumni and die hard fans of this team. When the boo’s became loud enough for anyone in the arena to hear, I knew that it was time to leave. I picked up numerous conversations on my slow, embarrassing walk out of the arena with time still on the clock. Again, everyone was talking about the same thing, the ineptitude of our head coach and senior point guard. It seemed to be more than a coincidence that the Depaul run started as soon as coach removed our freshman point guard (who just guided a 7-0 St. John’s run) and replaced him with our senior ‘leader’. This same point guard went on to say in a post game “I don’t play for the fans, I play for St. John’s”. Hate to tell you Eugene, but the fans ARE St. John’s.
So thus far the Johnnies are 1-3 in Big East play, and are staring at 1-7 considering the next four opponents. A trip to Morgantown isn’t exactly the cure for a team that is in need of a win. St. John’s hasn’t won in West Virginia since the 1999-2000 season. All we can hope for is the reaction from the crowd on Saturday will help motivate this team. We need our upperclassmen to start leading by example, not being a reason for our struggles. If things don’t change soon, it’s going to get uglier at games come late February. WE ARE ST. JOHN’S.
-The Game-
On Thursday January 17th, the Red Storm of St. John’s University hit the road to take on the West Virginia Mountaineers. The game will be played at WVU Coliseum in Morgantown, West Virginia, with tip-off scheduled for 7:00 PM. This Big East contest can be seen on the MSG Network and heard live on WFAN 660-AM.
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