St. John's Season Ends In Crushing Loss To Cal & Arkansas

 

St. John's RJ Luis Jr. battling Arkansas' Karter Knox. @StJohnsBball.

The St. John's Red Storm's magical season turned into a a nightmare  in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, as they lost a heartbreaker to the Arkansas Razorbacks, 75-66, on Saturday afternoon in Providence.

Rick Pitino, who arguably pushed the right buttons all year, met his match in his counterpart across the way, John Calipari. While  Pitino holds slight edges in their career records, Calipari  is now 14-10 in their head-to-head matchups.

It was a game that turned into a nightmare scenario in a hurry, as everything they feared came to pass - their three-peat shooting, which was a liability all year, never got going; they ran into a team that could keep up with their pace and was as big; and they got into foul trouble.

The game started out like most St. John's games, as Arkansas raced out to a 14-6 in the opening five minutes, but eventually, the Red Storm eked out a 28-27 lead on a Deivon Smith layup with 4:25 left in the first half.

St. John's found themselves up four points, 32-28, on a Zuby  Ejiofor free throw at the 2:38 mark.

From then until halftime, Arkansas sent the message that this would be a little different than playing Omaha on Thursday night, or frankly, even some Big East teams the Red Storm ran roughshod over, as the Razorbacks closed the half on a 7-0 run to take a 35-32 lead.

The momentum continued into the second half, as Arkansas opened it with a 7-1 run - 14-1 overall - to take a 42-33 lead.

A Johnell Davis layup would give Arkansas an 13-point edge, 55-42, with 11:32 left, and by now, it really felt like the roles were reversed.

However, St. John's was used to coming back, and they started to chip away, and eventually they pulled to within two, at 62-60, on a pair of Aaron Scott free throws with 6:11 left.

The one thing against St. John's by this point was that Kadary Richmond had fouled out on the prior possession, with 6:28 remaining.

That left the Red Storm without their floor general, and because he was in foul trouble from the early stages of the game, he finished with five points on 2-7 shooting, including one missed three-point attempt, with four rebounds and two assists, in just 16 minutes.

The last moment St. John's had that they could maybe pull this off was when Ruben Prey raced along the baseline to slam one him to make it 66-64 Arkansas at the 4:11 mark, which sent the St. John's-heavy crowd - including front-runner Spike Lee - into a frenzy.

After an Arkansas miss, St. John's had a golden chance to tie the game, but Ejiofor missed an easy layup at 3:26.

Billy Richmond III then buried a jumper at 2:58 to make it 68-64 Arkansas, and by the time D.J. Wagner made a layup with 2:14 left to make it 70-64, felt like St. John's was running out of time.

It also became apparent at this point that RJ Luis Jr., the Big East Player of the Year, would not be returning to the game, as he was firmly in his seat on the bench next to the fouled-out Richmond.

Luis Jr.scored just nine points on 3-17 from the field and 0-3 from behind the arc with seven rebounds.

With Lee in the building (it's one thing if he's on the bandwagon at The Garden, why is he in Providence?), hard not to think Luis Jr. was this team's version of the Knicks' John Starks in Game 7 of the 1994 Finals.

Ejiofor got a dunk with 20 seconds left to break the 3:51 drought since the Prey dunk, and make it 70-66, but Arkansas' Karter Knox buried a pair of free throws with 19 seconds left to make it a six-point game.

St. John's shot a putrid 28.0 percent, or 21-75, from the field, and 2-22, or 9.1% from the three-point line, while Arkansas shot 42.9 percent, or 27-63 from the field, overcoming their 10.5% (2-19) output on three-pointers.

Zuby Ejiofor was the only St. John's player to get anything going on offense, and thus, he was the only one to put up double figures. He had 23 points on 7-12 from the field, was 0-2 on threes, and 9-11 on free throws, with 12 rebounds (including four on the offensive end) to give him a double-double, with two steals and a block.

Arkansas was led by Billy Richmond III, who had 16 points off the bench on 6-10 shooting, with nine rebounds. Karter Knox had 15 points (3-5 FT, 0-2 threes, 9-11 FTs), six rebounds, an assist, and a steal.

PITINO POSTGAME: St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino addressed the media after the game, and he opened with this statement: "Congratulations to Arkansas. They were very athletic, played a great game, took away a lot of what we do. Very thankful for these two guys (Richmond and Ejiofor, who were next to him). They were really fun to coach. Kadary didn't play real well because he was in foul trouble. Foul trouble certainly hurt us but they were a better team. They outplayed us. They deserve to move on and we don't. That's what March Madness is all about. No matter how good a regular season you have, you play this way you're going to get beat. I'm very grateful I had these two guys on my team and Arkansas moves on and we don't."

Q. What happened for you defensively at the start of the second half? They hit eight of their 12 shots and they were in the paint or at the rim.

RICK PITINO: Well, I think we got a little (inaudible) because of foul trouble. That's what happens -- the fact that we withstood all our foul trouble and were still in the game was a positive sign, but offensively we did not share the basketball enough and that was our demise.

Q. Rick, you had RJ on the bench for a pretty long stretch at the end. Was that just because he wasn't making them or was there something more to it?

RICK PITINO: He played 30 minutes. That's a long time.

Q. So he was tired?

RICK PITINO: No. He played 30 minutes, I played other people. You know the answer, Roger. You're asking leading questions. So don't ask me any questions. You already know why he didn't play.

Q. You kind of alluded to it before the game but now that you saw Arkansas up close and personal, how did their athleticism and physicality match up with the teams you guys played previously?

RICK PITINO: We haven't faced that type of length in athleticism this year. That's not the reason we lost the game. We lost the game because we did not move the basketball enough and that lead to us shooting a very low percentage. We're a team that we have to get a high number of assists to win and we didn't tonight.

Q. Considering all the first half foul trouble, to only be down three at halftime, did you kind of feel like you got away with --

RICK PITINO: We should have had the lead if we made free throws. We should have had the lead. We battled. We just didn't get the job done, obviously. That was one of our poorest jobs offensively. Give credit to their defense but we shot ourselves in the foot with our lack of passing.

Q. Rick, when you're starting to make shots in the second half and you're on the run to get within two, are you thinking here we go again? This is what we have done all season and you had them almost where you wanted them?

RICK PITINO: I was just thinking of possession by possession. We had a shot, but we missed some free throws again and didn't make some defensive plays. But, again, it goes back to we just didn't do the little things to win that game and you got to give them the credit and they were the better basketball team by far.

Q. With RJ, Rick, he said he felt like he wasn't a good leader today. What did you think of in terms of that?

RICK PITINO: I'm just very appreciative for Aaron Scott. He had a bad game but he gave me his heart and soul with a broken finger. I'm very appreciative of Kadary Richmond. He was he was a true pleasure to coach. He had a bad game tonight defensively, took him out of the game. He was pure joy to coach. I'm very, very appreciative of Deivon Smith, who has been hurt and gave me everything he had. I'm very appreciative. I'm very thankful to the guys who gave me every single thing they had.

I hate to see them go out this way. We thought we were championship-driven in our minds, but I have been disappointed before with this. You hate to see us play like that. I don't mind going out with a loss, I just hate to see us play that way offensively. You gotta live with it. You put in a lot of time and effort, the coaches did, and it's just a bitter pill to swallow with that type of performance.

We'll give the credit Arkansas and I'll be very, very thankful to those three guys for giving me everything they had and we move on.

Q. Rick, I know that obviously the loss is very fresh, but this was pretty a sensational season for St. John's and its fans. Can you speak to the big picture of what you think this was and what it does for the program going forward?

RICK PITINO: I hope it does a lot. I hope it's -- I've had a lot of tough losses and I've had a lot of great victories in the NCAA and it always ends with you hating this moment. It always ends that way. It never ends -- the only time, I think we lost to Kentucky in the Final Four and it didn't end bitter because we gave everything we had. Tonight we didn't play a great brand of offensive basketball and that's disappointing, but overall I'm grateful for these three guys that gave me everything they had. They were the reason for the turnaround that St. John's had winning a regular season and winning a tournament. I'm just very, very thankful for them.

Q. What has this season meant to you and what do you want people to remember about this group?

RICK PITINO: I think the turnaround happened the first year. I think the guys -- I think what Ruben and Vince and Lefty and Sim and some of the guys that were on the bench and witnessed what the run is all about, and what you have to do to make the next jump, they witnessed it. And it's only going to help them. They're getting better. I was sorry that Lefty had to be thrown into that tonight. That's a very difficult team for him to play against as a freshman.

I think there was a lot of great moments this year. You wish that you could go out playing better offensively, but that's the breaks of the game. Give them credit, move on and see what happens in the future.