at least, according to one writer (Alex Wolff from SI). Here's what he says about them:
7. 1931 St. John's
"The Wonder Five," a unit since their freshman year, went 21-1 as seniors with a crowd-pleasing, post-centered offense in the style of the Original Celtics. Watching them beat CCNY in front of 12,000 fans packed into Manhattan's 106th Infantry Armory that season, a young sportswriter named Ned Irish decided to stage a series of fundraising tripleheaders to benefit the Depression's unemployed. Irish eventually quit to become a full-time promoter, and the doubleheaders he subsequently booked at Madison Square Garden turned the sport into a spectacle. The matchups that featured locals against intersectional opponents -- like Stanford, which in 1936 brought Hank Luisetti and his revolutionary one-hander East -- had a particularly lasting effect. So there's a straight line from the Wonder Five to the creation of a national sport, with capstone events like the NIT and, ultimately, the NCAAs.
Full article here (2 pages): http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20...ential-team/index.html?eref=sihp&sct=hp_wr_a2
7. 1931 St. John's
"The Wonder Five," a unit since their freshman year, went 21-1 as seniors with a crowd-pleasing, post-centered offense in the style of the Original Celtics. Watching them beat CCNY in front of 12,000 fans packed into Manhattan's 106th Infantry Armory that season, a young sportswriter named Ned Irish decided to stage a series of fundraising tripleheaders to benefit the Depression's unemployed. Irish eventually quit to become a full-time promoter, and the doubleheaders he subsequently booked at Madison Square Garden turned the sport into a spectacle. The matchups that featured locals against intersectional opponents -- like Stanford, which in 1936 brought Hank Luisetti and his revolutionary one-hander East -- had a particularly lasting effect. So there's a straight line from the Wonder Five to the creation of a national sport, with capstone events like the NIT and, ultimately, the NCAAs.
Full article here (2 pages): http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20...ential-team/index.html?eref=sihp&sct=hp_wr_a2
