{"id":542387,"date":"2026-03-24T13:31:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T13:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/542387\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T13:31:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T13:31:11","slug":"dylan-darlings-former-coach-urged-st-johns-to-bring-in-march-madness-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/542387\/","title":{"rendered":"Dylan Darling’s former coach urged St. John’s to bring in March Madness hero"},"content":{"rendered":"

Give Kyle Smith an assist.<\/p>\n

When St. John\u2019s explored adding Dylan Darling last spring, Kyle Smith \u2014 the former Columbia and Washington State coach now at Stanford \u2014 urged the Red Storm to pursue the Idaho State transfer.<\/p>\n

Smith and St. John\u2019s assistant coach Bob Walsh were college roommates, and Smith was convinced Darling wouldn\u2019t just be a fit in Queens; he\u2019d be a difference-maker.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told Bob Walsh, I don\u2019t know any coach who wouldn\u2019t love what he\u2019s about,\u201d Smith recalled over the phone with The Post a day after Darling\u2019s layup at the buzzer Sunday against Kansas sent fifth-seeded St. John\u2019s to its first Sweet 16 since 1999. <\/a>\u201cI know Coach [Rick] Pitino likes the grinders, and Dylan is that. He\u2019s a relentless guy, period.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Give Kyle Smith an assist. When St. John\u2019s explored adding Dylan Darling last spring, Kyle Smith \u2014 the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[4044,53629,102534,229929,99,358,14602],"class_list":["post-542387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-college-basketball","tag-dylan-darling","tag-march-madness","tag-march-madness-2026","tag-sports","tag-sports-plus","tag-st-johns-red-storm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542387","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=542387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}