St. John's Historic Season Ends Abruptly With NCAA Tournament Upset by Arkansas

Second-seeded St. John's saw its breakout season end Saturday in Providence, R.I., when 10th-seeded Arkansas beat the Red Storm, 75-66, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Poor shooting doomed the Johnnies, who made just 28% of their field-goal attempts and went 2-of-22 from 3-point range.

The result was a sharp contrast to the rest of a year in which St. John's won 31 games, claimed its first outright Big East regular-season title since 1985 and captured its first Big East Tournament championship since 2000. Even so, head coach Rick Pitino was unsparing in his assessment. "We thought we were championship-driven in our minds, but I have been disappointed before with this," he said. "You hate to see us play like that."

Shooting had long been viewed as the team's vulnerability. After St. John's swept UConn in February, Huskies coach Dan Hurley said the Red Storm had championship-level defense and offensive rebounding, and that its season would largely depend on whether it could make enough shots. St. John's 3-point percentage fell to 30.1% after Saturday's game, which ranked 341st in the nation.

The team had repeatedly overcome that weakness by falling behind early and wearing opponents down with physical play. It did so in the Big East Tournament against Marquette and Creighton, and in the first round of the NCAA Tournament against 15th-seeded Omaha. Against Arkansas, coached by John Calipari, that formula failed. St. John's missed 23 of its first 28 shots and trailed 22-14 less than 12 minutes in. Zuby Ejiofor said the team regained the lead but could not recover after losing it again.

Arkansas' size was a factor. The Razorbacks blocked seven shots and altered many others, and St. John's missed 17 layups. Pitino said his team had not faced that kind of length and athleticism this season, but he put the blame on a lack of ball movement. RJ Luis Jr., the Big East Player of the Year, scored nine points on 3-of-17 shooting and sat for the final 4:56. Pitino declined to criticize him, saying, "I'm not going to knock one of my players."

The nine-point defeat was the largest of the season for St. John's, whose other four losses were decided by a combined seven points. Reaching this point still marked a major turnaround. When Pitino was hired two years ago, the program had made only three NCAA Tournaments since 2002, none since 2019, and had not won an NCAA game since 2000. St. John's went 20-13 last year, missing the tournament, and the Big East coaches picked it to finish fifth this season.

Instead, the Johnnies went 27-4 in the regular season, including 18-2 in conference play, behind the nation's most efficient defense and sixth-best rebounding unit. They went 18-0 at home and 12-0 at Madison Square Garden, and entered the tournament ranked fifth in the AP poll, their highest ranking since January 1991. Luis and Ejiofor, the Big East's Most Improved Player, led the way, supported by transfers Kadary Richmond, Deivon Smith and Aaron Scott.

Next season's roster will have more continuity than in Pitino's first two years. Luis, Ejiofor and starter Simeon Wilcher can return, and freshmen Vince Iwuchukwu, Lefteris Liotopoulos and Ruben Prey are expected to take on larger roles. Richmond, Smith and Scott, however, are out of eligibility. Richmond, a Brooklyn native and All-Big East second-team selection, thanked the program for letting him "be the person I am."

Asked how much the 31-5 season could help the program going forward, Pitino said, "I hope it does a lot." Smith, meanwhile, pointed to what the group had accomplished: "We put New York on our back. We made a lot of people proud. We still had an unforgettable season, made a lot of history."