As if it couldn’t get any worse for St. John’s fans this weekend, from the day-ones to all those that joined in along the way during their run to the Sweet 16. As if they needed to see Braylon Mullins’ 35-foot forever shot fall through the Capital One Arena net, completing UConn’s 19-point comeback and closing out a Duke team that the Red Storm couldn’t two days prior. As if they needed to see UConn — those Huskies, again — reach the Final Four for the third time in four years, issuing one booming statement that the Big East, despite what the Johnnies accomplished during the season, still goes through Storrs.
Because UConn 73, Duke 72 just 48 hours after Blue Devils 80, St. John’s 75 matters more than the consecutive Big East Tournament titles that Rick Pitino’s group won. Delivering on the national stage like that carries more significance. The Huskies are going back to the final weekend of the college basketball season, a place that has become a normal destination for them in brackets this time of year. St. John’s is still trying to claw back to that point for the first time since 1975.
In a way, Mullins’ heroics were a bit unlikely. Alex Karaban, looking to win the third national title of his career, had the ball with a chance for a heave, but he dished it to the freshman — who hadn’t hit a 3-pointer all game and had collected just 10 points — for one of those shots that leaves the hands so smooth it looks like it could’ve hit from 45 feet. All year, this had been Karaban’s team. This had been Taris Reed Jr.’s team. This had been Solo Ball’s team. This had been an underperforming UConn team that folded twice against St. John’s.
And then Mullins, the former five-star recruit who chose Danny Hurley over his home-state school of Indiana and North Carolina, etched his place in March Madness lore, too.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
