It was – quite literally – a brawl the last time Providence and St. John’s met on the court. When faced with a rematch in the world’s most famous boxing venue, the chance for fists to fly was high.
Less than a month after the benches-clearing melee in Rhode Island, the Red Storm and the Friars were primed for another intense competition on Thursday at the Big East Tournament.
Instead, Rick Pitino’s one-seed St. John’s demolished Providence to end what has been a trying season for Friars coach Kim English.
The Johnnies are now off to their third-straight Big East Tournament semifinal, where they’ll meet their cross-Hudson River rivals, the Seton Hall Pirates.
Pirates coach Shaheen Holloway’s team rode a pair of 16-point efforts to knock off struggling conference powerhouse Creighton one year after they finished as the worst team in the Big East.
St. John’s Zuby Ejiofor led a dominant Red Storm effort over the Providence Friars in the early afternoon game at the Big East Tournament on Thursday at Madison Square Garden
Budd Clark (0) led Seton Hall to the Big East semifinals for the first time in five years
St. John’s 85, Providence 72
After beating Butler in Wednesday’s tournament tip-off game, English insisted there was ‘no beef’ between his team and St. John’s.
Fans could be forgiven for not believing the 37-year-old coach. After all, it was just three-and-a-half weeks ago when Providence’s Duncan Powell sparked a brawl with an aggressive foul on Red Storm transfer Bryce Hopkins.
Hopkins, who had been at Providence the year prior, wasn’t injured but his teammates came to his defense nonetheless. It was a brutal scene as six players got ejected for their actions and Powell was suspended multiple games.
So when their third matchup of the season was confirmed, there was an expectation for hurt feelings and tempers to boil over.
Except this was never really a close game. St. John’s got out to a 21-point lead at the half and never looked back.
Providence hit only one bucket in the opening eight-and-a-half minutes of the contest and was woefully out-rebounded throughout the game – losing 51-30 on the glass.
Stefan Vaaks provided Providence’s best performance with 23 points and five rebounds, followed closely by Jaylin Sellers’ 21 points and six rebounds.
But the Friars combined for only four assists while committing 11 turnovers. They also were only held to five 3-pointers made, after hitting 14 against Butler the day before.
Rick Pitino’s St. John’s team is heading back to the Big East semifinals after a dominant win
The Johnnies out-rebounded Providence by 21 and dominated from the beginning
Meanwhile, St. John’s star and Big East Player of the Year Zuby Ejiofor put up a strong stat-line of 21 points, ten rebounds, five assists and three blocks.
Hopkins dished out his final revenge against his former team with 14 points and 13 boards.
With rumors swirling about English’s future at the school coming to an end, the coach accepted the result that ended his team’s season.
‘I don’t want anyone’s sympathy,’ English told reporters. ‘Like, I don’t like anyone’s pity. Like, don’t text me nothing sad, “I hope you’re okay. Keep your head up” — I’m not that guy. I’m like, kick me while I’m down. I’ll get up.’
Pitino also backed English’s ability: ‘Kim’s a young coach and he’s a very good coach… What happened to them was they lost so many close games the beginning of the year that it went the other way for them. Unfortunately, that happens.
‘So he’s going to have a long career, and he’s a very good basketball coach… He gets his teams to play hard, they like him a lot. So I wish nothing but the best regardless of how it turns out.’
Ejiofor, the Big East Player of the Year, led the way as his team held the Friars to just five triples
English, after the loss: ‘I don’t want anyone’s sympathy.., kick me while I’m down. I’ll get up.’
Seton Hall 72, Creighton 61
The turnaround job completed by Shaheen Holloway and the Seton Hall Pirates is to be commended.
Believed to be the poorest in the NIL game in the league, the Pirates finished last season with a 7-25 record and just two wins in-conference.
This offseason, Seton Hall built a strong roster off the backs of increased donations and selling items like ‘Pirate Pesto’.
Whatever was in that pasta sauce worked its magic. Just a year later, Seton Hall reached 20 wins, was ranked in the AP top-25 at one point and Holloway was named Big East Coach of the Year.
On the opposite bench, a Creighton team that finished second in the Big East last season struggled after one of the school’s greatest players, Ryan Kalkbrenner, graduated and went to the NBA.
Shaheen Holloway put up a huge one-year turnaround to win Big East Coach of the Year
Meanwhile, Greg McDermott’s Creighton team suffered a catastrophic down year
Clark (0) took his typical leading role in the eleven point victory for the Pirates
While second-to-fifth isn’t that precipitous a drop on paper, it comes with the caveat that the Big East is in the midst of one of its worst years ever in terms of team quality and is expected to only send three teams to March Madness. Creighton, sitting at 15-16, woefully missed its expectations.
Creighton’s sloppiness ultimately proved to be the difference maker. The Bluejays finished with ten turnovers in the game, but Seton Hall scored 15 points off those cough-ups. The Pirates, meanwhile, lost the ball five times but only surrendered three points.
Seton Hall’s leading man Budd Clark got plenty of chest bumps and pats on the back from Holloway in his 16 point, seven rebound and six assist afternoon.
The Pirates also benefitted from an out-of-nowhere performance from bench player Jacob Dar. After averaging only nine minutes per game in the regular season, Holloway put him in for 15 minutes – where he scored 16 points and five rebounds.
