– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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NEW YORK — The under 12-minute media timeout was approaching, but St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino could not wait another second to deliver a message he believed he needed to relay post haste as his team’s grip on another Big East Tournament championship was starting to slip ever so slightly.
“JOHNNIES DON’T GET TIRED! JOHNNIES DON’T GET TIRED!”
After the message got its intended result, it is evident that, under Pitino, the Johnnies don’t get tired of winning also. They’ve done a lot of that the past two seasons, and even more winning looks like more than just a possibility as St. John’s goes into the Big Dance with that championship feeling once more.
St. John’s, the top seed, completed the regular season and tournament daily double on Saturday night as it trounced No. 2 seed Connecticut 72-52 to win the Big East Tournament championship game inside Madison Square Garden. Tournament Most Outstanding Player Zuby Ejiofor completed his Big East and MSG career with a near triple-double — 18 points, nine rebounds and seven blocked shots — in dominating his titanic match-up with fellow star big man Tarris Reed Jr. of the Huskies.
The banner week for the Johnnies started on Thursday, recording their 2000th victory in program history, before tonight’s win confirmed the Red Storm as the first team in school history to win consecutive Big East Tournaments. This after St. John’s won the regular season title outright for a second year running, a school first that became a reality when Connecticut surprisingly went down at Marquette in the regular-season finale.
But instead of relying on Connecticut going down against someone else to win a title, St. John’s took care of the Huskies on its own, scoring the first 10 points of the game and not looking back.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Saturday’s Big East Tournament championship game, with photos taken by ALOST staff photographer Dale Horton. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page. Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 44 pictures in total.
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