This season at home, the New York Knicks are a respectable 21-11, a far cry from the 30-4 and 29-5 records the East-leading Cavs and West-leading Thunder boast at Rocket Arena and Paycom Center respectively, an incendiary .868 winning percentage combined.
Clearly, Leon Rose and Tom Thibodeau have constructed a team worth the price of admission these last four years. Thanks to NIL dollars, the transfer portal, and the arrival of legend Rick Pitino, now in his second year helming St. John’s, the Red Storm has led back to Big East dominance, which has much to do with their undefeated home record.
As co-tenants of the Garden, the Johnnies are 25-0 at home between MSG and Lou Carnesecca Arena, including Saturday’s 82-66 victory against Creighton in the Big East Tournament championship game.
For only the third time in the program’s history and the first time since Walter Berry took home the honors in 1985, St. John’s boasts RJ Luis, Jr. as the Big East Player of the Year, an effort matched by Pitino, who won Coach of the Year honors in the conference.
After their dominance against Creighton at the World’s Most Famous Arena (at one point, St. John’s hit fifteen consecutive shots to shatter any hope of Bluejays mounting a comeback) St. John’s are 30-4 on the year, a resume that was good enough for the Red Storm to earn a two-seed in the NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday, where they will play in Providence, Coach Pitino’s old stomping grounds, in a Thursday night matchup against Omaha.
Through their collective campaigns, the Knicks and St. John’s have fostered New York into a basketball city again. Pitino is often in attendance at Knicks games, alongside Spike Lee, Ben Stiller, Jon Stewart, and company.
For as laudatory as he is with regard to his own players, Pitino often celebrates the Knicks’ abilities, fashioned from the same cloth Pitino has used to make St. John’s a championship contender: grittiness, tough-nosed play, rebounding, and defensive pressure, though the Red Storm excel in the latter department, whereas the Knicks have fallen off from their defensive efficiency of these last two years.
St. John’s swept the season series against the defending champion UConn Huskies and Shaka Smart’s Marquette, accounting for all four of their Quad 1 wins, adding another victory against Golden Eagles in the Big East tourney.
Along with Luis, Jr., forward Zuby Ejiofor, monster defender and rebounder, was named to the All-Big East First Team. Both look to leave their mark in the tournament’s West region and beyond.
For what the Knicks have managed with their offensive efficiency with the offseason additions of Karl Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges, they could stand to learn a bevy of things from the Johnnies’ swarming effort on defense. On that end of the floor, the Red Storm are relentless, living out Clyde Frazier’s mantra that “a good defense will always lead to good offense.”
Take, for instance, how the second half and overtime played out for St. John’s against Marquette on the road two Saturdays ago.
In the halfcourt, they converge. On the inbounds, they hit their spots. In transition, the Golden Eagles— or any other opponent, for that matter—can never get too comfortable. The Ejiofor buzzer-beating, game-winner in the paint does not happen without heads-up defending from Simeon Wilcher.
Though the Johnnies are not very dynamic from the perimeter, they compensate through their skill on the offensive glass, a knack for winning nearly every fifty-fifty ball, and their ability to find the open man when they need a quick basket.
Their synergy is breathtaking, which ought to amount to a deep run in March.
With Pitino being the only coach in history to take six different programs to the tournament—and the only coach to bring three different teams (Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville) to the Final Four—there is no telling what one of the greatest coaches of all-time can do for a St. John’s that has not been there since the years of Berry, Bill Wennington, and Chris Mullin in 1985.
Should the Knicks find the means to enter the playoffs with sharper defensive acumen, the more Mitchell Robinson gets comfortable and the faster and more frequently OG Anunoby and Bridges uncase their lockdown ability as wing defenders, the more Boston and Cleveland will have to take them seriously.
Otherwise, another second-round exit is all the Knicks will likely have to look forward to.
