The St. John’s slide has been so sudden, so swift, it’s almost incomprehensible.
One month ago the Red Storm rallied from a 16-point deficit in the final 7:23 to pull out a stunning 77-72 win at Georgetown. St. John’s followed that with a 62-59 win at Virginia Tech to boost its record to 10-5.
Since then there have two wins and six losses. The Red Storm (12-11, 5-8 Big East) have lost almost every way possible. They blew a 16-point lead at home and lost by 10 to Providence. They hoisted up a conference-record 41 3-pointers – making just 9 – and lost at Syracuse.
And there was the 84-82 loss at Boston College on Feb. 5 in which the Red Storm, trailing by one, twice failed to inbounds the ball under their own basket with 4.4 seconds left. That was the night Marcus Hatten said he was tired of learning from losing.
“The losses hurt,” said forward Kyle Cuffe. “It hurts everybody. I can’t really speak for everyone else but I know it hurts me.
“We know that every game we were put in a position to win and we always seem to fall short,” Cuffe said. “We got to stop making excuses and just get it done.”
That loss to Boston College (14-9, 7-5) was one of the five losses in the last six games, including three straight. The Red Storm get a chance to avenge that loss tonight when the Eagles come to the Garden.
B.C. has been boosted by the play of Troy Bell, who is averaging 29.7 points over the last nine games. Senior Anthony Glover must do a better job on freshman forward Craig Smith, who pounded the Red Storm for 22 points and nine rebounds.
St. John’s must win two of its last four games to finish over .500, which would make it eligible for an NIT bid. It’s a stunning predicament for a team that opened the season 5-0.
“I never imagined this,” said Cuffe. “I thought we would have a great year being that we started out good and the chemistry looked good early on. I thought that we wouldn’t be fighting for every game.”