One of the biggest stories in sports is happening in Queens and Manhattan. The problem is only college basketball fans, specifically St. John’s fans are enjoying it. I’ve been on twitter since 2011. It’s now called X after the world’s richest man bought and renamed it. X has group voice chats called spaces. On Sunday January 11, 2025 I joined in and spoke on “Sunday Sauce” a space dedicated to St. John’s basketball. It’s hosted by Ryan Patrick, Esq. I explained how I had covered St. John’s basketball in 2023-24 at the Charleston Classic in Charleston, SC and the National Association of Basketball Coaches invitational against Boston College at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. I explained that I’d love to cover and write about their games at MSG if I could get credentialed. Before I knew what was happening, Ryan Patrick and his followers started a #CredentialPaul movement on X. The next morning Ryan sent me the email of the St. John’s Athletic Director and the rest is history.
On January 14, 2025 I was credentialed and covering St. John’s vs Georgetown at Madison Square Garden with a crowd of 12,757. After trailing by ten at halftime 37-27 and getting down by as much as 14 in the second half, the red storm used a 19-2 run and stingy defense to beat the Hoyas 63-58. The Johnnies outscored the Hoyas 36-21 in the second half. On Wednesday January 22nd it was deja vu with the Johnnies again trailing by ten 40-30 at halftime. This time it was against Xavier in front of 14,545. Again St. John’s got down further after the half. They trailed by as much as 16 with 17 minutes to go. The Johnnies used a 29-10 run to get its first lead 63-60. Xavier scored 5 straight to take a 65-63 lead before Kadary Richmond finished at the rim to tie it at 65 and it went to overtime. Richmond and Zuby Ejiofor combined for an 8-0 run and the Johnnies had a 73-65 lead with 2 minutes left. They exchanged six points in the last two minutes and Xavier lost 79-71.
St. John’s had six days before they played their next game on January 28th in Washington, DC against Georgetown. They were undefeated and 6-0 in 2025. The first half against Georgetown was the best offense I’d seen them play. They took an 11-0 lead in the first 4:07. When Ejiofor finished a 12-0 run with a put back the red storm led 23-3 at 12:14. A 7-0 run put them up 32-8. RJ Luis Jr’s dunk with 4:29 left in the half put the Johnnies up 37-9. They went up thirty 41-11 after a Jaiden Glover reverse layup. St. John’s went into halftime up 47-21. The second half was marred by horrendous offense with Georgetown winning it 20-19. St John’s won 66-41. They ended with a 7-0 record for January and their next game was in four days on February 1st at MSG.
St. John’s started February 9-1 in the Big East Conference for the first time since 1984-85. They opened the month playing Providence College at noon on February 1st. The first half was back and forth with St. John’s taking a 25-21 lead into halftime. With the Johnnies up 31-28 with 16:54 to go in the game they went on a 11-0 run followed by a 6-0 run by Ejiofor to put the red storm up 42-28. The Johnnies extended their lead to 53-34. Providence caught fire and outscored the Johnnies 32-13 to tie the game at 66 with 33 seconds left after a Bensley Joseph game tying three. Jabri Abdul-Rahim led Providence with eight 3 pointers. Hitting three 3 pointers during the run. As time ran out Richmond put the Johnnies on his back as he rose up just inside the free throw line and knocked down the mid-range jumper to win 68-66 in front of 19,196 screaming fans! The Red Storm was on a roll. In another X space I commented you don’t need to get a stress test at the doctor’s office just go to a Johnnies game. I said they reminded me of the Kardiac Kids, the Cleveland Browns NFL team in 1979 and 1980. The Browns won a lot of close last minute games at the end of ‘79 and in 1980. One of the listeners said we should call the Johnnies the “Kadariac Kids” in honor of Richmond’s heroic shot to beat Providence. Next up was Marquette on Tuesday February 4th at 6:30pm in front of 16,521. Marquette was 9-2 in the Big East Conference. St. John’s was 10-1. The game was tight with Marquette leading 31-30 at halftime after shooting 56.5% on field goals. In the second half they shot under 30%. They were able to take the lead 55-54 with 5:20 to play. With the Red Storm up 60-59 they used a 6-0 run to put them up 66-59. With 1:11 remaining Richmond blocked a 3 point shot that forced Marquette to call a timeout and the Garden erupted into the loudest applause I’ve seen so far. RJ Luis Jr sealed the game with a dunk after they broke Marquette’s press to seal the win. Final score was 70-64. After the game I asked Richmond how it felt when he blocked the three and the crowd erupted. In a typical Kadary deadpan response he said, “it felt like I made a big block and the crowd went crazy.” His reply cracked up Coach Rick Pitino and most of the media. Kadary is a humble star.
The next St. John’s game I covered was at Villanova in front of 6,501 on Wednesday February 12th at 6pm. The Johnnies were 21-3 and 12-1 in the Big East. They came into the game on a 10 game Big East win streak after a big win at Connecticut. On Monday February 10th I was again on Ryan Patrick’s “Sunday Sauce” but it was on a Monday. I felt like a soothsayer when I warned Ryan and the St. John’s fans to be wary of Villanova sophomore Tyler Perkins. Perkins was coming off a 20 point performance against Xavier where he shot 7-9 with 4-5 from 3 point land. Perkins hit a three in the first half to put Villanova up ten 32-22. St. John’s used an 8-0 run and a 3 to cut it to 34-32 at halftime. Wooga Poplar led all scorers into halftime with 13 points for Villanova. In typical Johnnies fashion they scored the first 5 points of the second half and were up 37-34. Poplar hit a 3 to make it 42-39 with 17:16 to go. The Wildcats outscored St. John’s 17-9 to lead 59-48 with 11 minutes. Then in typical Johnnies fashion the Red Storm pressed their way back to a 59-58 deficit with 8:06 to go. Villanova led 70-66 with 2:27 left but the Johnnies reeled off 5 straight points capped by Plainfield, NJ sophomore Simeon Wilcher’s three to make it 71-70 St. John’s with 28 seconds to play. This is when my soothsaying happened. On a broken play Perkins hit a three with 8.7 seconds left and the 10 game win streak was history.
The 73-71 Villanova win sent the Johnnies into the biggest game of their historic season against Creighton on Sunday February 16th with a loss. With the Super Bowl over all discerning sports fans knew the Sunday 3pm tip was the biggest game being played in American sports. The Garden was a sellout with 19,812 fans. The Johnnies were 12-2 in the Big East. Creighton was 11-3. The game opened with big swings. Ejiofor had two early three pointers. Creighton had a 14-1 run to gain a 10 point lead with 15 minutes to go in the half. St. John’s then outscored Creighton 17-7 to tie it at 21 with 10:28 left in the half. The lead traded sides 6 times in the last 10 minutes to make it 40-39 St. John’s up going into halftime. Creighton’s biggest offensive player of the game was Steven Ashworth who hit a three with 14:51 to go in the game to give Creighton a 53-48 lead, their biggest of the second half. With the score 53-52 after an Ejiofor dunk the Johnnies put their foot down and extended their lead to 58-53 with a Richmond layup off a Luis Jr behind the back pass. It was magical. Creighton got it to 58-57 with a fast break dunk but the Johnnies Aaron Scott hit a corner three to make it 64-58 with less than 6 minutes. St. John’s extended their lead to 72-64 with another Scott bucket with 1:17 left. They won 78-73 making 7 of 8 free throws in the last minute. After the game I asked Creighton Coach Greg McDermott, “was it their defense or their offensive rebounding and their attacking the boards that was most effective against you?” In his answer he said, “their defense is outstanding… they wear into you over time their physicality their toughness their pressure as the game wears on it wears into you a little.” The answer from Creighton’s 15 year coach is most telling. He prefaced his answer with “it wears into you a little.” Coach I beg to differ. St. John’s relentless ball hawking defense and attacking the boards is why they sit at the top of the Big East. The Red Storm are likely to bring a Big East Regular Season championship to NYC. If you haven’t checked out the mania going on at Madison Square Garden you should.
