Where was this all season?
Where was this defense? Where was this strength? Where was this unity? Where was this focus?
For 40 minutes on Monday night, St. Johns finally looked like the team fans had been waiting for. The team that was supposed to hold the NCAA tournament and was ranked 4th in the Big East.
It defended at a high level. It shared the ball incredibly well. Attacked both ends of the floor. One night, Johnny saw that part at Seton Hall’s stunning wire-to-wire 84-63 beatdown at the small Walsh Gymnasium in South Orange, NJ, far surpassing their best win of the season.
“It was just right for our whole team,” Posh Alexander told coach Mike Anderson when they entered the interview room.
This was supposed to be the celebration night of the Pirates, the first league game on campus since 1985. Jim was noisy and full of 1,400 students. But they set off early as St. Johns piled it up for the first Quad 1 win of the season.
Anderson took Alexander off the bench, and the sophomore point guard responded with a full effort of 19 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and a plus 22 rating in 29 minutes. Ten St. John’s players scored. Aaron Wheeler (17 points, 10 rebounds) was a bidirectional force and continued his renaissance. Given the opportunity, Tarlik Coburn hit three three points. Julian Champagnie struggled aggressively, firing two out of ten, but that wasn’t a problem. He contributed in other ways, with 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 blocks.
But this was not about one individual. This was about the tenacity of the entire team at St. John’s (11-7, 3-4 Big East). Its stuffy defense that keeps pirates from shooting from the field to 30%. That aggressive spirit. He owns Paint (42-18) and rebounds the larger Seton Hall (12-6, 3-5) with a 6 and gets 20 assists with 32 field goals. After postponing several runs on the Seton Hall, he led with 21 points in the first half and 26 points in the second half.
“Our energy level is [how] I played a few days ago, “Anderson said. “That’s all we talked about. The guys played with multiple efforts. They trusted each other.”
It was certainly a 180 degree turn from Saturday’s lethargic loss to the Seton Hall in the garden. On Sunday, Anderson sat down on the entire team to watch the previous Loss movie. Players screamed when Johnny analyzed the defeat and identified shortcomings such as rebound and defense.
“No one did anything personal, but we were able to understand things in the movie session,” Wheeler said.
St. Johns pushed virtually the entire game. Miles Kale said Johnny played harder. Seaton Hall coach Kevin Willard called the pressure of the Red Storm “amazing” and felt that the pace of the attack had surprised the pirates. It was very different from the first meeting. Anderson made one tweak. He went deep into his bench for a longer stretch and his reserve scored 41 points.
“Some guys were playing for minutes, which influenced how they played,” Anderson said.
Pirates were within 8 in the middle of the second half when the game changed. Montes Mathis scored 5 straight points, pushing the lead to 12 and kick-starting a 20-4 run with points from 7 different Johnny. The game wasn’t suspicious anymore, but it still didn’t stop St. Johns from trying every shot or pushing the ball 94 feet in the last few minutes. Johnny didn’t stop until the watch reached triple zero.
“That’s the team. I was looking for it,” Anderson said.
He is not the only one.
