NEW YORK – It was a season of extremes for St. John’s.
The Johnnies went almost a month without a “W” dropping 11 in a row in the middle of the season.
Then in a span of less than two weeks, St. John’s stunned Duke and Villanova, both ranked at the time in the top 5 in the national polls, to open a four game winning streak.
The Johnnies kept up their strong play in the final days of the regular season, beating Butler in double overtime and losing to Seton Hall in overtime.
On Wednesday night St. John’s beat longtime rival Georgetown in an exhilarating 11 point throwback win to delight the hometown Madison Square Garden crowd on the opening night of the BIG EAST tournament presented by JEEP.
Thursday afternoon the third year of the Chris Mullin era in Queens closed with an 88-60 quarterfinal loss to top-seeded Xavier.
Afterwards junior stalwart Marvin Clark II emphasized the positives of going through the up and downs of the 16-17 season.
“I think having that 11-game stretch of losing, losing, losing, losing, I think most people would have cowered and tucked their tail and ran. “ said Clark II, who paced St. John’s with 18 points against the Musketeers, that followed a 16-point effort against Georgetown.
“I’m proud of our team for fighting back and salvaging something out of the season,” said Clark II.
There is no secret to why the team played well at times and then struggled through the season according to Mullin.
“I think it’s clear when we played unselfishly, played together, we’re a pretty good ball club,” said Mullin. “And when we didn’t, we struggled. A lot of times we had some close games that didn’t go our way, but I thought we fought through that and to finish up the way we did I thought was impressive after having that tough stretch in January.”
The loss came less than 24 hours after the Johnnies had beaten Georgetown but Mullin was adamant that fatigue had nothing to do with the loss.
“They’re a tough team to play against under any conditions,“ said Mullin. “The turnaround is what it is. That’s what you get for coming in ninth (in the league).”
While the status of sophomore guard and the BIG EAST’S leading scorer Shamorie Ponds is a looming question mark for next season, Mullin is sure of one thing if the Johnnies are to look to improve next season.
“We ‘ll see who does come back,” said Mullin. “But to me the most important is going to be another good work in the summer. To me that’s the next part of the development.”