Earlier this afternoon, the St. John's Red Storm men's basketball team won an exciting thriller over #4 Pittsburgh at Madison Square Garden. Johnny star, Dwight Hardy, put in the winning bucket off a layup with just seconds remaining in the game to the Storm up 60-59. Pitt then missed the half court heave as time expired, which put the game in the books. St. John's beat a ranked team at the Garden yet again. Since then #4 Syracuse blew them out on January 12th, St. John's has not lost a game at MSG. This feat becomes even more impressive when you look at the teams they beat and by how much. Today's game was just the second close game at Garden against ranked opponents; the other being St. John's first upset versus then #13 (now #9) Georgetown, 61-58, on yet another final second shot made my second leading scorer, Justin Brownlee. The Johnnies other three wins at the world's most famous arena consisted of no less than 15 points, all of course versus ranked foes. On Jan. 16, the game after the loss to the Orange, St. John's defeated then #11 (now #7) Notre Dame 72-54, a whopping 18 point victory, which is the largest this year at the Garden. The Red Storm's next victory came against then #3 Duke two weeks after the Notre Dame dismantling. This time they won 93-78 in what was the Johnnies highest scoring output of the season. The most recent blowout victory for the former Redmen came a little over two weeks ago against then #9 Connecticut. It was a 17 point beat down, 89-72. The Storm are 7-1 at MSG this season.
What does this mean you ask? Well for starters it is going to help St. John's become ranked for the first time in several years. This is not official information due to the new rankings coming out on Monday, but St. John's is almost guaranteed to join the Top 25 due to their current 4-game win streak against some tough opponents in UConn, Cincinnati, Marquette, and Pitt. The big wins at MSG also solidify St. John's bid for the NCAA Tournament this year. The biggest factor of St. John's performing so well at the Garden is that the Big East Tournament is played annually at Madison Square Garden. The Johnnies domination at the MSG can only mean they have to be mentioned as favorites to win the that tournament.
To conclude, St. John's basketball recapturing Madison Square Garden has been great for the university as well as the city of New York. New York City has always had great pro teams, but did not many great college teams. Back in the day, St. John's basketball used to run the city until some incidences in the early 2000's made the program rebuild basically. But now that St. John's is winning again the city is back on the map and hopping with St. John's chatter. St. John's grabbing big wins this season is great timing as their fellow MSG tenants, the New York Knicks, have not had the season that was unexpected after having a busy off-season. St. John's is making MSG the place to see good basketball. Johnny has truly come marching home again.
References
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=310502599
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/team/_/id/2599/st-john-red-storm
http://www.redstormsports.com/sports/m-baskbl/archive/stjo-m-baskbl-archive.html
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