In most years, Tyrone Grant will attend a sport or two.
This winter is completely different. He can’t pull himself away from St. John’s. The previous Johnnies heart has been to seven video games and plans to be at many extra.
“I like watching them,” he instructed The Publish in a telephone interview. “I’m an enormous fan of Zuby [Ejiofor], I don’t even assume he is aware of how good he can probably be. I like to look at the staff. Once they get it going, as only a pure sports activities fan, it’s thrilling to look at, simply the keenness, how all people’s scoring.
“They make defense fun. It’s fun to watch them play.”
It’s not simply Pink Storm followers who can’t get sufficient of this group. Alums really feel the identical approach.
The Publish spoke to a few notable Johnnies — Grant, Marcus Hatten and Tarik Turner — concerning the present state of this system, which is off to its greatest begin via 20 video games at 17-3 because the 1989-90 season.
They had been downright giddy about this staff’s potential, the depth and ferocity during which it defends and the thrill this group has generated.
St. John’s is tied atop the Huge East standings at 8-1 and is ranked twentieth within the nation. It hasn’t been that prime in a decade. It’s projected as a sixth-seed by most bracketologists and has the nation’s fifth-ranked protection when it comes to effectivity.
Turner, a Fox Sports activities analyst who additionally works on St. John’s radio broadcasts, has to go all the way in which again to the 1998-99, Elite Eight season when the vibes had been this excessive. After final Wednesday evening’s win over Xavier, he was at Penn State ready for his practice dwelling. Virtually all the station was pink.
“I hadn’t seen that in a long, long time — like over 10, 12, maybe 15 years,” stated the previous level guard, who performed for St. John’s from 1994-98. “The excitement from the fans, the alumni, has never been higher, and that’s exciting. They want to see us win and they’re seeing it.”
He added, “Random people on the train, in restaurants, everywhere I go, people want to talk about St. John’s.”
A middle on the Elite Eight staff in 1998-99, Grant sees similarities to his staff with this unit.
It’s the approach these Johnnies guard, their capability to modify at each place and their physicality at each ends of the ground.
Turner loves the perimeter — which options Kadary Richmond, Deivon Smith, Simeon Wilcher and RJ Luis. It’s reminiscent to him of the 1998-99 one which included Erick Barkley, Bootsy Thornton, Ron Artest (now Metta World Peace) and Lavor Postell. Turner even thinks this group is best in a single space.
“This team is better than that team defensively, because that team didn’t have a rim protector,” Turner stated. “This team has Zuby and we average six blocks. Kadary makes up for a lot of mistakes with his length. This team defensively is the best St. John’s team I’ve seen that I can remember.”
One space that Grant want to see enchancment in is on-court management.
St. John’s has been a terrific second-half staff, a nod to the halftime changes coach Rick Pitino incessantly makes.
It has outscored the opposition by a mean of 9.3 factors after intermission. Solely Duke, Florida and Tennessee are higher in that class. However generally it takes too lengthy for the Johnnies to snap out of a funk.
“Nothing against Coach Pitino,” Grant stated. “Sometimes he’s not going to be there to save them.”
Requested their favourite participant on the staff, the three alums all raved about Ejiofor, notably Grant, a giant man himself.
The junior ahead has gone from a backup to a star this 12 months — the staff chief in rebounds (8.2) and blocks (1.9), and second in scoring (14.6).
He’s additionally second nationally in offensive rebounds (4.5) per sport. Turner pointed to ahead Aaron Scott as somebody he admires due to the soiled work he does.
“He makes all winning plays. He’s super low maintenance. He’s a star in his role,” Turner stated. “He’s not our best player. He’s a really, really good glue guy. He does so many little things — loose balls, deflections. I thought his on-ball defense in our last game really stabilized us.”
Turner doesn’t need everybody to overlook it’s nonetheless January.
Quite a bit can occur between now and March. St. John’s has but to face the opposite two ranked groups within the league — No. 10 Marquette and No. 19 Connecticut — and hasn’t reached the midpoint of the convention season.
In fact, it’s simple to get carried away, contemplating how lengthy it has been since this program has achieved this type of success.
Just like the win-starved fan base, alums have been ready for a season like this.
“It’s a special team in the sense they believe in each other,” stated Hatten, the high-scoring guard who led St. John’s to the 2003 NIT crown. “It’s not that they blow you away with expertise. They’re blue-collar employees, they match the New York Metropolis mindset, and they’re excelling with that.
“It’s everything we’ve wanted. We have seen and endured so many seasons that we thought were going to turn out the way this season is turning out. To actually witness now is a breath of fresh air.”
There’s a sense this could get higher. Pitino’s groups are identified to be at their greatest late within the season. Final 12 months’s staff, for example, didn’t hit its stride till mid-February. For that cause, the schedule might be working in St. John’s favor — with Marquette, UConn and Creighton coming to the Backyard between Feb. 4-16. MSG ought to be electrical for these showdowns.
“They need that one win for the city to go crazy,” Grant stated. “You know the city is full of front-runners. They need something big to just go crazy.”
