5 BOROUGH SPORTS

Well who saw that coming?

Out of nowhere in the midst of a season collapse (had lost 5 of 6), St. John’s absolutely destroyed #3 Duke today. It was Duke’s worst road loss since the demolition they took down in Clemson two years ago in a 74-47 loss. St. John’s looked dominant throughout playing good defense and absolutely running up and down the court on the Dukies. While I’m not going to sit here and explain to you that St. John’s is suddenly a great team, or better than Duke, but this was a big win for a tournament resume.

St. John’s is 12-8 (4-5 in the BE). With ten games plus the Big East Tournament remaining, there is alot of time for St. John’s to rise or fall. Right now they are in, quite in for you bracketology buffs. (Check back tomorrow for the latest Bracketology) If St. John’s can manage to play 500. ball the rest of the way, beating the Rutgers, DePauls and Seton Halls of the world, while managing another two or so quality win, the Johnnies will be dancing come March.

Today’s win brings me back to my previous article, is St. John’s Back?

The win today was a big step forward, a sold out Madison Square Garden was rocking and they are close, but at this point the season will still be a disappointment if they play badly down the stretch. Lets see if St. John’s be a factor in the Big East Tournament. They play on their defacto home floor for the tournament, so lets see the crowd come out and support them. The St. John’s fans that have supported them for the last ten years and filled only 5,000 Garden seats, are really pumped right now, but lets see the rest of New York jump back on board. New York is feeling basketball fever again with the Knicks, and I think the success of the NBA team on the same home floor helps St. John’s. College basketball is unlike anything else, especially come March. The passion and effort shown by players, coaches and fans far exceeds anything you see in the NBA. New York is the mecca of Basketball in the world and there are only two teams that New York really cares about in Basketball, the Knicks and St. John’s. (my apologizes to the Nets, Fordham, St. Francis, LIU, Columbia…etc.)

Now that both are close to getting over the hump after an awful decade of Basketball, its time to come and out and show the support big time. The Knicks have gotten it a bit, but come on out for the Johnnies too. Today’s game was sold out, which is good, but I’m sure 40-50 percent of the Garden were Duke fans, or neutral. St. John’s still has two top five teams (Nova and Pitt) coming to the Garden this year before the Big East tournament, so opportunity still awaits.

St. John’s: Another step in taking back New York

Game Summary and Box Score

This entry was posted on January 30, 2011 at 5:29 pm and is filed under College Basketball, St. John's. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.