Finally a sliver of well
St. John
But maybe â just maybe â this one game  this one Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden  is a hint that thereâs life yet in the old bear  in the St. Johnâs basketball team  which had no business sharing a court with the fourth-ranked Duke Blue Devils yet somehow walked off that court with an 81-77 victory.
âIâm happy for the guys â  St. Johnâs coach Chris Mullin  said. âThey needed it more than anything.â
It is what this program needed  too  as much as anything. As the losses mounted  the helplessness did too. Nobody expected  Mullin âs return to  his  Utopia Parkway kingdom to be a magic elixir  but nobody figured on 0-11 in the Big East in Year 3  either. It has been hard for  Mullin âs guys  yes  but it has been just as hard for the faithful to keep their faith.
âThe month of January was rough for us â forward Tariq Owens said. âBut  Coach  never stopped preaching to us and we never left the gym and finally it paid off.â
Itâs one game  yes. Two years ago   St. Johnâs  hammered a Syracuse team bound for the Final Four and  it  proved merely an outlier. Maybe this will be the same thing.
Or maybe it wonât be. If you care about St. Johnâs  and about college basketball in this city  it really is the only way to root.
But maybe â just maybe â this one game  this one Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden  is a hint that thereâs life yet in the old bear  in the St. Johnâs basketball team  which had no business sharing a court with the fourth-ranked Duke Blue Devils yet somehow walked off that court with an 81-77 victory.
âIâm happy for the guys â   [TGT] said. âThey needed it more than anything.â
It is what this program needed  too  as much as anything. As the losses mounted  the helplessness did too. Nobody expected  Mullin âs return to  his  Utopia Parkway kingdom to be a magic elixir  but nobody figured on 0-11 in the Big East in Year 3  either. It has been hard for   [TGT]  âs guys  yes  but it has been just as hard for the faithful to keep their faith.
âThe month of January was rough for us â forward Tariq Owens said. âBut   [TGT] never stopped preaching to us and we never left the gym and finally it paid off.â
Itâs one game  yes. Two years ago    [TGT] hammered a Syracuse team bound for the Final Four and   [TGT]   proved merely an outlier. Maybe this will be the same thing.
Or maybe it wonât be. If you care about  [TGT] and about college basketball in this city  it really is the only way to root.