{"id":539727,"date":"2026-03-23T03:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T03:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/539727\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T03:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T03:26:09","slug":"st-johns-long-defined-by-losing-finally-back-in-sweet-16-weve-got-more-in-the-tank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/539727\/","title":{"rendered":"St. John\u2019s, long defined by losing, finally back in Sweet 16: \u2018We\u2019ve got more in the tank\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of the\u00a0second round<\/a> of 2026 Men\u2019s March Madness.<\/p>\n

SAN DIEGO \u2014 With 27 years separating St. John\u2019s from its last Sweet 16, it was a player with zero points who drew up the play to ensure the drought wouldn\u2019t extend beyond the final 3.9 seconds still staring back at them on the scoreboard.<\/p>\n

The Red Storm have spent years, decades really, at a level below mediocrity; relevant only for their futility. And even if coach Rick Pitino was unwilling to acknowledge it before the game, winning this game was a prerequisite to cementing their comeback.<\/p>\n

All that matters in this sport happens in March. He knows that as well as anyone.<\/p>\n

So with 3.9 seconds left, the score tied, and a chance to exorcise every demon, Darling told his coach, \u201cLet\u2019s run \u2018Power,\u2019\u201d arguing to Pitino that there wasn\u2019t enough time to do anything other than a full head of steam to the basket.<\/p>\n

Pitino did a double-take, agreeing with the play, while also impressed with the gall for a scoreless player, mired in an epic shooting slump, to draw up a buzzer-beater for himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he ran it to perfection,\u201d Pitino said, acting as if there was never any doubt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI probably don\u2019t deserve this. I was pretty bad all night long,\u201d Darling said. \u201cThe ball left my hands, and I hit the ground, and I didn\u2019t even see the ball go in. I just heard everybody going crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just happy to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if Darling doesn\u2019t feel deserving of the adulation, it\u2019s a moment richly earned by St. John\u2019s program and its fans. Since 1999, the Johnnies have endured 17 seasons with a losing conference record.<\/p>\n

They cycled through six coaches during that time. There was Steve Lavin, the UCLA legend, who failed to become their savior. There was Chris Mullin, the all-time great alum, who saw nothing but failure.<\/p>\n

Mike Anderson, Norm Roberts and Kevin Clark \u2014 all authoring different versions of the same story. The World\u2019s Most Famous Arena was a ghost town for a team that should have been its collegiate heartbeat.<\/p>\n

Pitino came to St. John\u2019s to revive the dormant program, and he\u2019s fulfilled every promise<\/a> over these three seasons. Understanding the significance of Darling\u2019s shot requires a lesson in everything that came before it. Before Pitino.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means a lot to New York, Johnnies Nation,\u201d said St. John\u2019s star Zuby Ejiofor<\/a>, who started his career at Kansas but very notably won\u2019t end it against them. \u201cThey haven\u2019t been here since 1999. I wasn\u2019t born. It means a lot. \u2026 This is all about St. John\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

This matchup was the marquee game of the second round, one that everyone circled when the brackets were announced. It set up two Hall of Fame coaches and two teams with wildly different paths to the upper echelon of college basketball.<\/p>\n

For the Jayhawks, this marks the fourth consecutive season in which they failed to make a second weekend. Still, a better four-year stretch than any St. John\u2019s can boast since the 1980s. Every Red Storm fan would sign up for Kansas\u2019 version of futility.<\/p>\n

It was an ugly game, when the points didn\u2019t match the pace. The two teams were racing up and down the court, authoring a game better described as a comedy of errors than a highlight reel. In the first half, Kansas had a 7:50 stretch without making a field goal. It overlapped with a near-six-minute scoring drought for St. John\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Kansas consistently sagged off the Red Storm shooters, daring them to shoot. It was a sound idea, after all, given St. John\u2019s offense is centered on getting to the line and dominating around the rim. Pitino said he\u2019s been begging his team to shoot more from the outside, and Kansas left St. John\u2019s no choice. Bryce Hopkins, who had just 25 3-pointers to his ledger over the first 35 games of the season, buried 6 of 9, all in the biggest of moments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019m a good shooter,\u201d Hopkins said. \u201cWhether they choose to respect me, that\u2019s on them.\u201d<\/p>\n

True to form, Pitino was emotionless as the game winner dropped in the hoop. All the players on his bench raced the 20 or so feet to Darling, a celebration that seemingly began simultaneously with the game\u2019s expiration. He didn\u2019t partake with even a smile. He put his head down, grabbed the collar of his jacket and walked to the handshake line.<\/p>\n

After all, he\u2019s experienced this all before. It\u2019s a point he made himself after the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been on winning at the buzzer and losing at the buzzer,\u201d he said. He hasn\u2019t indulged in all the big-picture questions about the significance of this win. That\u2019s for another day, perhaps.<\/p>\n

But as Darling was tackled under his basket, the thousands of red-clad fans who flew across the country for a moment decades in the making, there was no doubt left St. John\u2019s was officially, and finally, back.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was the final for me, to get St. John\u2019s to the next level,\u201d Pitino said, acknowledging the goal, without ever relenting on a belief that he\u2019s actually done it. \u201cAnd we\u2019re not done yet. We still have a lot in our tank.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic has live coverage of the\u00a0second round of 2026 Men\u2019s March Madness. SAN DIEGO \u2014 With 27…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[1774,2663,99,14602],"class_list":["post-539727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-kansas-jayhawks","tag-mens-college-basketball","tag-sports","tag-st-johns-red-storm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}