How Sweet It Is!

For the first time since 1999, the St. John’s Red Storm are headed to the Sweet 16. They will take on the No. 1 seed in the East region of the bracket, the Duke Blue Devils, on Friday night in the nation’s capital.

It was not an easy road to get here. The Johnnies dominated the Big East Tournament — including a beatdown of their conference rival UConn Huskies — and kept the domination train rolling in their first-round matchup against the University of Northern Iowa.

That’s when things got real.

In gearing up for St. John’s second-round matchup against the Kansas Jayhawks, one could not help but think back to last year’s second-round draw against John Calipari and the Arkansas Razorbacks. Those are not memories a St. John’s fan thinks back on fondly.

That disappointing disaster of a game from last year left a glaring black mark on what should have been — and rightfully still is, despite the finish — remembered as one of the greatest seasons in recent program history.

Not being able to make it out of the Round of 32 was the dark cloud hanging over all the success that came this year for the Johnnies.

Back-to-back regular-season Big East Championships? Check. Back-to-back Big East Tournament Championships? Check. First trip to the Sweet Sixteen since 1999? Not so fast. I think everyone knew Hall of Famer Bill Self and his fourth-seeded Kansas Jayhawks would have something to say about that.

Prior to the Kansas game, St. John’s had been on a tear. They had jumped out to early leads against their last four win-or-go-home opponents, and they never really looked back.

The Kansas game started differently. Right from the tip, you could tell that the Johnnies’ offense was off. Most of the guys just did not have it on Sunday night. But, as always, their defense kept them alive. After throwing up a season-high barrage of three-pointers, the Red Storm went into halftime with an eight-point lead. On paper, in the NCAA Tournament, you should be happy with that. I can almost guarantee that no St. John’s fan was feeling happy.

The second half began with more of the same offensive woes, and yet, because of the sheer dominance of St. John’s defense, the lead ballooned to as many as 14 points with under 10 minutes left in the game.

Then things started to change.

With every tick of the clock, it felt as if the momentum was swinging to the Jayhawks’ side. As you would expect from a Bill Self-coached team, Kansas methodically chipped away at the Johnnies’ lead. With six minutes left, the lead was 10. With five minutes left, it was down to eight. With 2:30 left, it was down to three. With thirteen seconds left, it was all tied up at 65 apiece.

The season was on the brink.

Kansas used their fouls to give to stop St. John’s from running a play until there were only 3.9 seconds left on the clock, and they were inbounding the ball from half court.

With 39 minutes and 56.1 seconds of the game already in the books, Dylan Darling, St. John’s starting point guard, had scored zero points.

But none of those minutes mattered now.

These last 3.9 seconds were all that mattered. They don’t call him “Church Bells” for nothing.

Darling collected the inbound pass, drove straight downhill to the rim, and even while being guarded flawlessly by a Jayhawk defender, the lefty managed to flip up a right-handed layup.

“To be honest, the ball left my hands and I hit the ground, and I didn’t even see the ball go in,” said Dylan Darling at the postgame press conference. “I just heard everybody going crazy.”

With zero seconds left on the clock: St. John’s 67, Kansas 65.

How sweet it is!

For the first time in 27 years, your St. John’s Red Storm are storming into the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament.

Obviously, Darling deserves to get all his laurels. Without him, there is none of this. But to leave out a mention of Bryce Hopkins’ record-setting shooting spectacular or Ian Jackson’s timely turn-up would be criminal. So, to avoid a run-in with the authorities, let me just say that those two deserve their fair share of adulation as well.

It may be impolitic to say it, but no matter what happens tomorrow, this is easily the greatest season of St. John’s basketball this century.

Dylan Darling, a former Big Sky player from Washington, and his heroic shot will be remembered in New York City for decades to come. He helped make a lot of dreams become reality.

Duke is a formidable foe. They are the true blue bloods of college basketball. There is no doubt Rick Pitino still thinks about Christian Laettner and what those Dukies did to him all those years ago.

But the times have changed. Pitino is back home in New York now. And his St. John’s team is playing with house money. And I think that a team with this defense and nothing to lose is as menacing as any team in the entire country.

Friday night. Washington, D.C. St. John’s vs. Duke. A trip to the Elite Eight on the line. Why not, fellas?