{"id":43446,"date":"2025-11-18T11:14:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T11:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/43446\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T11:14:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T11:14:22","slug":"dylan-darling-impresses-with-great-moxie-for-st-johns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/43446\/","title":{"rendered":"Dylan Darling impresses with ‘great moxie’ for St. John’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rick Pitino tweaked his starting lineup once. <\/p>\n

Then tore it up a second time.<\/p>\n

Knowing that St. John\u2019s needed an extra ball handler to pair with Oziyah Sellers against William & Mary\u2019s full-court pressure, Pitino planned to start Lefteris \u201cLefty\u201d Liotopoulos until he saw how practice turned out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we put in their full-court press, we were turning the ball over constantly,\u201d Pitino said. \u201cThe [backups] were destroying the starters, simulating their pressure. I walked upstairs and told the staff, \u2018It\u2019s not going to work.\u2019\u2009\u201d<\/p>\n

Enter Dylan Darling, who might be one half of the Red Storm\u2019s new starting backcourt (with Sellers) moving forward after a 93-60 victory Saturday night<\/a> at Carnesecca Arena.<\/p>\n

\"DylanDylan Darling drives to the basket during the St. John\u2019s win over William & Mary on Nov. 15. Robert Sabo for the NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got great moxie,\u201d Pitino said. \u201cHe\u2019s afraid of nothing. He thinks he\u2019s the best player on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Will Pitino really start an Idaho State transfer (Darling) over the highly touted transfers from North Carolina (Ian Jackson) and Arizona State (Joson Sanon)?<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to play the best players regardless of reputation,\u201d Pitino said. \u201cI told this to Joson and Ian the other day. I brought them both in and said, \u2018I\u2019m not going by reputation. You are all new to me. I don\u2019t care what you did in high school. I don\u2019t care what you did at Arizona State or North Carolina. I just care about what you do at practice.\u2019\u2009\u201d<\/p>\n

Pitino said that it is \u201cirrelevant\u201d to him who starts because \u201cthey are all going to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"St.Dylan Darling drives to the basket during the St. John\u2019s win Nov. 15. AP<\/p>\n

Darling didn\u2019t fully return to practice from a calf strain that caused him to miss the last game until Thursday. <\/p>\n

He figured out he was starting in Saturday morning\u2019s shootaround. <\/p>\n

The change freed up the hot-shooting Sellers to look for his shot.<\/p>\n

CHECK OUT THE LATEST BIG EAST STANDINGS<\/a> AND ST. JOHN\u2019S STATS<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cDylan is a great point guard. He has great vision,\u201d Sellers said. \u201cI feel like whenever I\u2019m playing with him, he finds ways to get me open. I\u2019m used to playing off-ball, so I feel natural.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pitino \u2014 as if wanting to send a message about keeping your foot on the gas to his newly assembled team \u2014 challenged a goaltending call against Dillon Mitchell despite a 78-45 lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never look at the score,\u201d Pitino said. \u201cI just coach every possession as if it\u2019s my last breath in life. We just try to teach, so when we\u2019re in a close game we remember the way it\u2019s played. I\u2019m not trying to run up the score. The referee actually looked at me and I said, \u2018That\u2019s not a goaltend. Do I have to challenge this?\u2019 He said, \u2018You have to challenge it\u201d<\/p>\n

The call was overturned after replay review.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tYour weekly dispatch from the No. 1 source on the Johnnies\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside St. John’s by Zach Braziller, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the first time that St. John\u2019s has scored 90 or more points in the first three games of a season since 1971-72.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rick Pitino tweaked his starting lineup once. Then tore it up a second time. Knowing that St. John\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3361,9,24,55,54,56,3362,319,3363],"class_list":{"0":"post-43446","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-college-basketball","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-city-news","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-rick-pitino","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-st-johns-red-storm"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}