So I figured a lot of you out there are bored and sports deprived because of the COVID-19 situation. I am too, which is why I am channeling some of my boredom into a post where I compiled some great wins from the last decade or so AKA my era of being a SJU fan for the most part. I feel like a lot of people think of big wins as March Madness W's or wins against Duke/Nova, but there have been some sneaky good ones that have maybe gone a little under the radar as time has passed. I wanted to maybe reminisce and also pull some YouTube clips of these wins so we can look back and appreciate some great moments. Lets get it going
1) St. John's @ Marquette - March 8th, 2013:
Johnnies get a crucial road win in double OT to end the regular season. I thought for sure we were going to the tournament after this. That Providence game in the BET where JaKarr got blocked still haunts me. But this was a great game. Huge Harrison shot in the 2nd OT, which you can see in the video. He had some ultra clutch moments that have kinda been forgotten because our seasons did not end so great.
2) St. John's vs Creighton in 2013: So I couldn't find any footage of this game on youtube. If any of you can help me out below. But it was the game where Doug McD came to the Garden and we needed the win bad for our resume. JaKarr Sampson's best game as a Johnny. Played absolute lockdown defense against Dougy down the stretch and we got a huge W.
3) St. John's vs Minnesota - Nov. 26, 2014:
- An early season match up that was huge because we wanted a shot at Gonzaga which the winner of this game would get to play. We gave the Zags a great game, ultimately came up short. But this game was memorable for a few reasons. To me, it is the game where a lot of us realized this Sir Dom senior year surge was legit. He absolutely postered one of Minny's bigs in this one and shifted the momentum our way. It also has one of the best DLo moments of his SJU career, he saves the ball falling out of bounds, hustles back into the corner and buries the 3 plus the foul. Then started freaking out in classic DLo fashion. Awesome win, was the night before thanksgiving if I remember correctly, made it a great holiday.
4) St. John's vs Xavier Feb. 25, 2014:=75s
We swept Xavier this season and i could not find any footage of the win @Xavier which was awesome. But so was this one at MSG. Premium Sir Dom in this one, played out of his mind. Win all but sealed our tourney fate. Underrated moment in this one, DLo buries a deep 3 to give us the lead with about 6:30 to go in the game. Huge, momentum turning shot immediately followed by... a Lavin timeout. You can see in the video above a hilarious couple of seconds where Harrison looks completely confused that a timeout is being called by his own sideline after his huge shot. Thought that'd make some of you laugh considering Lavin's momentum killing timeouts was a huge topic of discussion here.
St. John's vs Rutgers Nov. 19, 2015:
So this season did not go anywhere, obviously. In fact it was a very bad season. And this video is funny to watch because I don't think any of our players actually stayed at SJU very long. A lot of Mussini and Sima stuff. But still, great early season comeback. Some joy for these kids who endured a tough season.
St. John's @ Syracuse: Dec 22, 2016:
I do not want anyone to forget that we WHOOPED Cuse's ass at the Dome. We couldn't do anything wrong in the 2nd half of this game and it was amazing to watch. huge smile on my face watching this one, I was a freshman at SJU by this time and I had just come home for Winter break, great early Christmas present.
St. John's vs Marquette Feb 10, 2018:
So everyone remembers the Duke and Nova wins this season, but don't forget we followed those wins up with a win against MU at home that was electrifying. Probably best game of Ponds career, dropped 44! He had more memorable moments for us, one of those I will be talking about next, but this had to be his best game from beginning to end. Marquette had no answer for him. A really good Markus Howard vs Shamorie Ponds guard battle, with Ponds getting the upper hand, as he did a few times.
St. Johns vs VCU Nov 20th, 2018:
Another great Ponds game. VCU fans bitched and moaned about this one the entire season because of the no call at the end, whatever. We get screwed all the time by refs, was nice to get away with one. Clutch Shamorie at his best. I was actually at this game, there were not many people there, but goddamn it felt good walking out of Barclays with that win. Still undefeated, and we would stay that way until the Seton Hall game, another game I traveled to with my Dad. Did I mention we get screwed by the refs all the time?
St. John's @ Georgetown Jan 5, 2019:
Classic Ponds game. Remembered mostly for his insane steal when GTown tried a lob on a 2 on 1 late. I was also at this game with my Dad, what a great Amtrak ride home. I walked out of that arena thinking we had the best player in college basketball.
1) St. John's @ Marquette - March 8th, 2013:
Johnnies get a crucial road win in double OT to end the regular season. I thought for sure we were going to the tournament after this. That Providence game in the BET where JaKarr got blocked still haunts me. But this was a great game. Huge Harrison shot in the 2nd OT, which you can see in the video. He had some ultra clutch moments that have kinda been forgotten because our seasons did not end so great.
2) St. John's vs Creighton in 2013: So I couldn't find any footage of this game on youtube. If any of you can help me out below. But it was the game where Doug McD came to the Garden and we needed the win bad for our resume. JaKarr Sampson's best game as a Johnny. Played absolute lockdown defense against Dougy down the stretch and we got a huge W.
3) St. John's vs Minnesota - Nov. 26, 2014:
- An early season match up that was huge because we wanted a shot at Gonzaga which the winner of this game would get to play. We gave the Zags a great game, ultimately came up short. But this game was memorable for a few reasons. To me, it is the game where a lot of us realized this Sir Dom senior year surge was legit. He absolutely postered one of Minny's bigs in this one and shifted the momentum our way. It also has one of the best DLo moments of his SJU career, he saves the ball falling out of bounds, hustles back into the corner and buries the 3 plus the foul. Then started freaking out in classic DLo fashion. Awesome win, was the night before thanksgiving if I remember correctly, made it a great holiday.
4) St. John's vs Xavier Feb. 25, 2014:=75s
We swept Xavier this season and i could not find any footage of the win @Xavier which was awesome. But so was this one at MSG. Premium Sir Dom in this one, played out of his mind. Win all but sealed our tourney fate. Underrated moment in this one, DLo buries a deep 3 to give us the lead with about 6:30 to go in the game. Huge, momentum turning shot immediately followed by... a Lavin timeout. You can see in the video above a hilarious couple of seconds where Harrison looks completely confused that a timeout is being called by his own sideline after his huge shot. Thought that'd make some of you laugh considering Lavin's momentum killing timeouts was a huge topic of discussion here.
St. John's vs Rutgers Nov. 19, 2015:
So this season did not go anywhere, obviously. In fact it was a very bad season. And this video is funny to watch because I don't think any of our players actually stayed at SJU very long. A lot of Mussini and Sima stuff. But still, great early season comeback. Some joy for these kids who endured a tough season.
St. John's @ Syracuse: Dec 22, 2016:
I do not want anyone to forget that we WHOOPED Cuse's ass at the Dome. We couldn't do anything wrong in the 2nd half of this game and it was amazing to watch. huge smile on my face watching this one, I was a freshman at SJU by this time and I had just come home for Winter break, great early Christmas present.
St. John's vs Marquette Feb 10, 2018:
So everyone remembers the Duke and Nova wins this season, but don't forget we followed those wins up with a win against MU at home that was electrifying. Probably best game of Ponds career, dropped 44! He had more memorable moments for us, one of those I will be talking about next, but this had to be his best game from beginning to end. Marquette had no answer for him. A really good Markus Howard vs Shamorie Ponds guard battle, with Ponds getting the upper hand, as he did a few times.
St. Johns vs VCU Nov 20th, 2018:
Another great Ponds game. VCU fans bitched and moaned about this one the entire season because of the no call at the end, whatever. We get screwed all the time by refs, was nice to get away with one. Clutch Shamorie at his best. I was actually at this game, there were not many people there, but goddamn it felt good walking out of Barclays with that win. Still undefeated, and we would stay that way until the Seton Hall game, another game I traveled to with my Dad. Did I mention we get screwed by the refs all the time?
St. John's @ Georgetown Jan 5, 2019:
Classic Ponds game. Remembered mostly for his insane steal when GTown tried a lob on a 2 on 1 late. I was also at this game with my Dad, what a great Amtrak ride home. I walked out of that arena thinking we had the best player in college basketball.
