St.John’s Honoring An Elite 8 Team Is Lame Enough But To Do It Against UCONN Is So Dumb It Hurts
The biggest fanbase that comes at my neck is St.John's fans. Get it from every angle ever since I said how bad the facilities were and that I don't think anyone can fix St.John's. There's a guy Gary from Queens who sits on hold from his lunch hour til 4pm to give me shit.
Now I will say I obviously know how good Rick Pitino is. I know what he's capable of, he's an all time winner, and he's already been great in the portal. However, I stand behind the fact of the facilities being absolutely trash after having witnessed them first hand, the limited amount of games they played at MSG, the limited success all time, the program having no glamor to an 18 year old recruit, them missing out on top recruits right out of the hotbed that is NYC basketball - most notably the CHSAA, and the fact that if Pitino doesn't win a title ... I'm not sure they are a lock to get a guy who can have sustained success given all those obstacles. I very well could be wrong, but time will for sure tell, and the St.John's fans will for sure remind me of it.
Anyway ... UCONN comes to MSG Saturday. This has been a big talking point because Pitino hates that UCONN will have fans at MSG so he wants to play it the shit hole that is Carnesecca arena, and is pawning it off as a way to honor Lou Carnesecca for his 100th birthday.
These two fucking hate each other and it's great for the conference and great for the game.
Anyway, back to Saturday. This has to be the dumbest ... I mean the dumbest thing on earth for St. John's to pick this game to honor this team. Now ... #HealthyDebate it's lame to honor an Elite 8 team in the first place, I mean absolutely super lame, and should make my case that St.John's is a program that is not a lock for sustained success no matter who the coach is. But I guess when your NCAA Tournament wins since 1999 are .....
are you ready for it ......
- A 2000 first round win over 15 seed Northern Arizona by 5 points
....
...
Yep … that's their only win. So maybe honoring Elite 8 teams at St.John's needs to be done because who knows when you'll get back there … or even win an NCAA tournament game for that matter.
But the reason this is even more dumb is they chose to do it against UCONN.
Quick history lesson … in 1999 the National Champions were:
You guessed it UCONN.
Broke my heart as a 12 year old Duke fan. Horrible. Fat Khalid El Amin still pisses me off.
Also… in 1999 St.John's and UCONN met at MSG for the Big East Final … where you can probably guess who won.
Add in the fact that UCONN is the current defending National Champion and that by honoring an Elite 8 team in front of them you are admitting how much better their program is than yours … it's an absolute no brainer to pick any other team. Literally pick ANY other team to do this ceremony against. ANYONE BUT UCONN. Moronic decision, and this is the stuff I talk about when I call St.John's a low major program and their fans go bizzerk. You want to be a major program and do things right … DON'T HONOR ELITE 8 TEAMS AND WIN A GAME IN THE TOURNAMENT THEN COME TALK TO ME!
With all that said … Saturday should be a scene. Can't get enough Big East Basketball.