Those of you who were glued to American Idol last night missed one of the most entertaining endings to a college game I’ve seen in some time.
St. John’s was down two points to Cincinnati with under 20 seconds left — in danger of falling to 0-4 in Big East play — when junior guard Dwight Hardy did his best impression of Darrelle Revis, intercepting a long pass from Cincy’s Rashad Bishop and driving the ball back towards the rim, where he was fouled. Hardy — they call him “Buckets” — calmly drained both freebies.
On the ensuing inbounds play, Bearcat freshman Lance Stephenson — a.k.a. “Born Ready” — failed to live up to his nickname. Hardy stole Stephenson’s nonchalant inbounds pass, was fouled again and sank two more free throws.
A last-second three attempt by Deonta Vaughn found only iron, and St. John’s had their first Big East win of the season.
The win has some St. John’s observers gushing. New York Post scribe Lenn Robbins called it “…more than a win. This was more than a statement. This was, potentially, a watershed moment in the St. John’s basketball program under Norm Roberts.“
You sure about that, Lenn? Because I follow the program pretty closely, and my reaction was simply mild surprise.
The win didn’t surprise me; Roberts’ teams have knocked off superior opponents in Big East play before. No, the surprising thing in my eyes was the fact that the Johnnies got an opportunity to steal a game they had no business winning — and they actually came through. Let’s be real here — if Cincinnati players didn’t make two bonehead passes in the final 30 seconds, the New York media is leading stories with “St. John’s to 0-4 in the Big East and Roberts Seat is Getting Hotter.”
One gift-wrapped win later, and St. John’s athletic director Chris Monasch is telling Adam Zagoria, “I think we’re clearly a much better basketball team this year, based on how we played in the non-conference games and how we played in all of our Big East games. Getting a win tonight, I think we’re right on target where we want to be.”
Apparently where Monasch wants to be is “just good enough to justify keeping Roberts around another year.”
St. John’s: Hardy’s Steal Saves Game, Coach’s Job? originally appeared on About.com Basketball on Thursday, January 14th, 2010 at 14:29:02.
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