Nostalgia: red.fans edition

Jack Williams

Jack Williams

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2023 $upporter
Obviously the vibe here is not exactly happy as we head towards another year of no postseason and perhaps a coaching search.

One thing I noticed in that thread about Louie's last season, I feel like it is fun to reminisce about old teams. Fun for the people who were there, and fun for people like me who didn't see Louie coach, to get to hear word of mouth stories about his final season.

So, I have a prompt for the board.

What are some of your favorite SJU regular season wins and why? NCAA tournament wins are too easy to cite. I want to hear about the regular season games that still stick out to you to this day.

And a bonus question: What is a regular season loss that still haunts you to this day?
 
The Avery Patterson 4pt play to beat cuse at the garden stands out to me as a much needed bright spot during a dark time on the boards. I remember vividly how active it was here for the next day or 2. Think we followed that up with another decent win vs ND.

Then at the garden and in attendance vs WVU looking for my first ever in person sju win, within the span of a bathroom break we went from up 15 to down 15. I walked out of MSG stuttering and confused.
 
I'll go, although my pool of big wins to pull from isn't great lol.


1) Win over #4 Pitt in 2011 at MSG the easiest choice: Still remember watching it with my Dad. We took a timeout before our final possession and my dad said "Hardy is gonna win us this game". Very good call by him. Atmosphere was electric even just watching on TV.

2) We had a win @Xavier during Dom/DLo/Greene's senior year that really got us off the bubble and put us in the drivers seat to make the dance. I remember Marco Baldi a JJ poster was over here during that time and I made a bet with him that if St Johns won, he would have to leave the site forever. If Xavier won, I would have to leave the site forever LOL. So there was some personal stakes for this one too. Even though we ended up calling off the bet before the game, I still just had this good feeling about this one. No one thought we could win at the Cintas Center. We went in there. Sir Dom was electric. We don't talk enough about the jump that dude made in his senior season. He really struggled during his career here, finding his place and his role. Senior year, he had the freedom to just be unleashed. Do everything. Even though I remember that win fondly, I believe DLo tweaked something in his leg that game that never really healed for the rest of the season.



Loss I still can't get over - Coach K's 1,000th win at MSG. We had that freakin game. Had it. We were throwing haymaker after haymaker. But just could not close in the final 5 minutes. Still makes me so mad. Tyus Jones b*tch ass stuck his leg out on a couple three pointers. This was back when refs were consistently falling for that. Flipped the game
 
Favorite wins:

The Holiday Festival win over # 1 Michigan with Cazzie Russell - Johnnie team featured the McIntyre brothers and Sonny Dove (on top of this being a fabulous game and huge upset I believe it was the first or second St. John's game I ever attended);
The upset of Pitt in the Garden when Dwight Hardy made the buzzer beating shot along the baseline;
The MSG blowout of the Duke by Lavin's first team (I was also at this game which always makes it more memorable and loved watching the Duke fans file out early).

Disappointing/haunting losses:
I don't recall the tough losses as vividly as the great wins (probably a much needed coping mechanism for a St. John's fan) but two that stick out:
The MSG overtime loss to #2 Duke where Bootsy had 40 and Artest played great although it was tough to be too disappointed by that great effort;
I also remember the 1967-68 team led by John Warren, Joe Depre & Rudy Bogad losing a one point game at Alumni Hall to Marquette who was led by George Thompson and I believe was a top 10 team at the time. I think this was the second year that my Dad had season's tickets to St. John's games.
 
Barkley team winning at Duke
For a long time we were the last non conference team to win at Camron

Best game I ever went to was a loss. Bootsy 40 point game against Duke. Great game and fans were about a 50/50 split. As per usual got cheated by refs. Battier flopped his way to fouling out our entire front line.
 
Something about being a kid always outweighs the rest and for some reason the Boo Harvey buzzer beaters in 88 or 89 are the ones that I like the most. The one against DePaul was huge because the preseason NIT used to be a big tournament. Hitting a 3 against hated Georgetown that year and then Pitt (off the glass, I want to say) and I think he hit a 3 to either win or tie against Seton Hall. I was like 12 at the time, and Mullin was the reason I support SJU in the first place but Boo became my favorite player when I was old enough to really follow the sport. I always loved Sealy too, but something about Boo Harvey was always clutch.

Obviously, the Duke games. I was 23 years old when Bootsy hit the game winner at Duke. Just…to beat those guys in their gym was amazing. And, I think we had beaten Georgetown and Syracuse around the same time span. That team was good. And, of course, Hatten like single handedly winning the game in the Garden in ‘03 (I think). The free throw and the celebration. That was kind of a disappointing season but to beat Duke and then win the NIT was a nice finish. Not losing your last game of the season, what a novel concept.

And, to cheat…destroying Steve Francis in the Sweet 16 was so awesome. Even though we were a good team no one picked us to win that game and we just beat the crap out of them. Kinda similar to when we beat Jimmy Jackson and OSU. Just, beating Maryland meant a little more to me.

I don’t want to remember the losses, ;)
 
Two favorites of mine were actually losses, which is probably why I see a therapist.

1. The 1999 famous OT game against Duke at MSG that everybody knows and loves.

and the less famous...

2. The 1992 loss in the Holiday Festival to UK with Pitino, Mashburn and Co.

Kentucky was ranked No. 3 and was expected to destroy us.

Mahoney was a rookie coach and didn't have much of a roster outside Shawnelle Scott. We had already lost to freakin Fordham a few weeks before so no one expected much of a game.

But SJU came out on fire and David Cain almost singlehandedly destroyed the vaunted UK press.

Freshman Charles Minlend was a beast that night. The D shut down Mashburn but unfortunately, freshman Roderick Rhodes had one of his best games as a collegian.

The Garden was rocking on a night it wasn't supposed to. And the loss was a catalyst for a memorable season.

www.nytimes.com

COLLEGE BASKETBALL; St. John's Sets an Ambush But Kentucky Avoids the Trap (Published 1992)

www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
 
Jack Williams said:
I'll go, although my pool of big wins to pull from isn't great lol.


1) Win over #4 Pitt in 2011 at MSG the easiest choice: Still remember watching it with my Dad. We took a timeout before our final possession and my dad said "Hardy is gonna win us this game". Very good call by him. Atmosphere was electric even just watching on TV.

2) We had a win @Xavier during Dom/DLo/Greene's senior year that really got us off the bubble and put us in the drivers seat to make the dance. I remember Marco Baldi a JJ poster was over here during that time and I made a bet with him that if St Johns won, he would have to leave the site forever. If Xavier won, I would have to leave the site forever LOL. So there was some personal stakes for this one too. Even though we ended up calling off the bet before the game, I still just had this good feeling about this one. No one thought we could win at the Cintas Center. We went in there. Sir Dom was electric. We don't talk enough about the jump that dude made in his senior season. He really struggled during his career here, finding his place and his role. Senior year, he had the freedom to just be unleashed. Do everything. Even though I remember that win fondly, I believe DLo tweaked something in his leg that game that never really healed for the rest of the season.



Loss I still can't get over - Coach K's 1,000th win at MSG. We had that freakin game. Had it. We were throwing haymaker after haymaker. But just could not close in the final 5 minutes. Still makes me so mad. Tyus Jones b*tch ass stuck his leg out on a couple three pointers. This was back when refs were consistently falling for that. Flipped the game
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Wow that Pitt win was 12 years ago already. Remember like it was yesterday family went to the game then are in the city. the win was all over the news
 
Good ones. The recent wins over Cuse and Yukon are my recent favorites. Phil Greene up at Cuse when Cuse was doing the "We are New York's Team" stuff which has backfired on them in a major way and I think it started with that game. Even the Mullin teams proudly took up the cause. Way back the win at Pitt with Jerry Muccullugh I think 93, was sweet because Pitt played really dirty and was also taunting our players and even getting into it with the fans in the stands who travelled to Pitt. The whole game the announcers were talking about how great Mucculough was even though we had already beat them at home. Everything made the win that much better.
Worst loss for me was the Duke Singleton technical which I am still convinced the game was fixed and the refs were in on it. The whole game was called against us and when we were still about to win it, they pulled that.
 
Some of my favorites. Beating Uconn Duke and Pitt Lavins first year at msg because it officially ended the debacle of Norm for me. ( that's kinda how our 114 crew was born )

One of my all time favorites was 89-90 The Boo Harvey last second shot parade. My buddies and I go down to gtown. We were down the whole game and were fouling out and actually had Barry Millhaven playing center. Boo hits a last second shot to win the game. We were stunned then we went nuts.

I think the team bus got pulled over after that game down there. That was the rumor. We partied hard that night down there we all must have lost part of our livers that night

Worst loss the loss to Duke in the NCAA with the bogus tech on Billy Singleton

Worst player loss during ( timing of it ) DJ Kennedy
 
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MainMan said:
Two favorites of mine were actually losses, which is probably why I see a therapist.

1. The 1999 famous OT game against Duke at MSG that everybody knows and loves.

and the less famous...

2. The 1992 loss in the Holiday Festival to UK with Pitino, Mashburn and Co.

Kentucky was ranked No. 3 and was expected to destroy us.

Mahoney was a rookie coach and didn't have much of a roster outside Shawnelle Scott. We had already lost to freakin Fordham a few weeks before so no one expected much of a game.

But SJU came out on fire and David Cain almost singlehandedly destroyed the vaunted UK press.

Freshman Charles Minlend was a beast that night. The D shut down Mashburn but unfortunately, freshman Roderick Rhodes had one of his best games as a collegian.

The Garden was rocking on a night it wasn't supposed to. And the loss was a catalyst for a memorable season.

www.nytimes.com

COLLEGE BASKETBALL; St. John's Sets an Ambush But Kentucky Avoids the Trap (Published 1992)

www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
Click to expand...
You just reminded me of that game we played against Kansas early in the 00-01 season (might have been a tournament of some sort but it was definitely in MSG) where we made a great comeback, either tied it or got within a bucket and then, or course, lost in the end. We were big underdogs, we hung in but fell to the mighty Kansas. Drove from Poughkeepsie back to my house on LI, listening the whole time. Hated Gooden and Hinrich because of that game.
 
mjmaherjr said:
Some of my favorites. Beating Uconn Duke and Pitt Lavins first year at msg because it officially ended the debacle of Norm for me. ( that's kinda how our 114 crew was born )

One of my all time favorites was 90-91 The Boo Harvey last second shot parade. My buddies and I go down to gtown. We were down the whole game and were fouling out and actually had Barry Millhaven playing center. Boo hits a last second shot to win the game. We were stunned then we went nuts.

I think the team bus got pulled over after that game down there. That was the rumor. We partied hard that night down there we all must have lost part of our livers that night

Worst loss the loss to Duke in the NCAA with the bogus tech on Billy Singleton

Worst player loss during ( timing of it ) DJ Kennedy
Click to expand...
The OT loss to Duke very memorable went to the game with my father Garden was packed

Remember that BS Billy Singleton tech - I believe he bounced the ball hard to the court and caught it,
 
Red.Fans said:
Good ones. The recent wins over Cuse and Yukon are my recent favorites. Phil Greene up at Cuse when Cuse was doing the "We are New York's Team" stuff which has backfired on them in a major way and I think it started with that game. Even the Mullin teams proudly took up the cause. Way back the win at Pitt with Jerry Muccullugh I think 93, was sweet because Pitt played really dirty and was also taunting our players and even getting into it with the fans in the stands who travelled to Pitt. The whole game the announcers were talking about how great Mucculough was even though we had already beat them at home. Everything made the win that much better.
Worst loss for me was the Duke Singleton technical which I am still convinced the game was fixed and the refs were in on it. The whole game was called against us and when we were still about to win it, they pulled that.
Click to expand...
good call on the phil greene Cuse game.

I was at my uncles house during that game and I freaked out my cousins because of how loud i was screaming after every Greene three. We had some brutal losses to Cuse in the first several years of me being a fan. That win really got rid of some demons. Now we've won like 5 straight on them
 
guinness77 said:
Obviously, the Duke games. I was 23 years old when Bootsy hit the game winner at Duke. Just…to beat those guys in their gym was amazing.
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does anyone have a link to this shot? Don't think I have ever found it on youtube.

The Hatten free throws as time expired against Duke is on youtube, but i have never seen the Bootsy game winner at Cameron
 
Jack Williams said:
does anyone have a link to this shot? Don't think I have ever found it on youtube.

The Hatten free throws as time expired against Duke is on youtube, but i have never seen the Bootsy game winner at Cameron
Click to expand...
I think the Dookies got that game scrubbed off the Internet. I’ve looked in the past, even for just newspaper stories and it’s like the game only exists to us. In this day and age, that’s definitely odd.
 
One last one…Lavin’s first year when we beat Nova in Philly. That told me that that year’s team had really arrived. Hardy had his typical great game but I particularly remember Paris Horne having a really good game and at one point towards the end, had some thundering dunk to put the exclamation point on it. It felt like we hadn’t beaten those guys in forever and it felt great.
 
guinness77 said:
One last one…Lavin’s first year when we beat Nova in Philly. That told me that that year’s team had really arrived. Hardy had his typical great game but I particularly remember Paris Horne having a really good game and at one point towards the end, had some thundering dunk to put the exclamation point on it. It felt like we hadn’t beaten those guys in forever and it felt great.
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felt like we hadn't beaten them in forever, and we've hardly beaten them since haha
 
guinness77 said:
Besides the game when Posh terrorized Gillespie, I’m not sure we have. That’s…pretty sad.
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we've gotten them a couple times of late. Mullin beat them twice. Once when they were the #1 team in the nation too. Another time we won at MSG after sleepwalking through the first half. Justin Simon hit a 3/4 court shot before half and then I remember LJ Figgy having a great second half and we won. Then yes there was the Posh dominating performance his freshmen year.

But I am scared to research our record against Nova in the last 20 years. It must be brutal. like 3-30 or something crazy
 
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