March Madness: St. John's turning point of the season was Providence melee
St. John's head coach Rick Pitino looks on during the first half of a game against Duke in the Sweet 16 of the 2026 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament on Friday in Washington, D.C. Credit: Getty Images/Patrick Smith
WASHINGTON
There is no downplaying the significance of St. John’s win over Kansas on Sunday to earn its first trip to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 since 1999 and a Friday night matchup with overall No. 1 seed Duke.
A deeper look into this season, however, may show that the Red Storm’s Feb. 14 triumph over Providence actually was the turning point.
The St. John’s team that looked completely overpowering in routing the field in the Big East Tournament and so tough in two March Madness wins in San Diego (plus Friday's 80-75 loss to Duke)?
That Valentine’s Day win over the Friars at Amica Mutual Pavilion — and the memorable bench-clearing melee in the second half — galvanized the Red Storm into a team capable of doing something St. John’s hadn’t been able to do in the previous 27 years.
“Without question, I really feel the Providence game changed a lot of things for the positive with us,” coach Rick Pitino said.
It’s quite a juxtaposition. The scene for St. John’s biggest disappointment last season — the NCAA Tournament second-round upset by Arkansas in Providence — is the same place where the current team had its biggest transformation.
The environment at Amica is always hostile because of the Friars’ rowdy fans, but it was antagonistic to the point of offensive with its treatment of former Providence star Bryce Hopkins, now wearing Storm red. Incited by environs in which obscenities were chanted at Hopkins, Duncan Powell clotheslined Hopkins on a breakaway for a go-ahead basket, touching off the fracas and leading to six of the game’s seven ejections. Though shorthanded, St. John’s went on to win.
The Red Storm won 11 of their next 12, including the impressive postseason run.
“With everybody getting ejections and everybody feeling so bad for Bryce Hopkins, they all rallied around him,” Pitino said. “I think that was the turning point for us to take it to a new level, the Providence game [with] everybody [in the crowd] getting on him.
“They [Red Storm players] were so protective of him that I saw something in them I thought was really special. And we started playing great basketball. Now, yes, Connecticut just stormed us [Feb. 25 in Hartford], but we came back with a great win at Villanova.”
Pitino and his staff added 11 new players for this season, including seven transfers, with Zuby Ejiofor the lone returning starter. They come from many places, different schools and different countries. They always got along, but some players were more naturally drawn to friendships with others. But not after that game. After that game, they were all together all the time.
“When [Hopkins] got tackled, they came to his defense,” Pitino said. “That bothered them. I think that brought them really close together by really caring for Bryce. They [now] care for each other.
“Regardless of where they’re from, I think they formed a bond after that game. That was special.”
“Things happen, but we had each other’s back no matter whatever it was,” Dillon Mitchell said. “Some of us got ejected, but just being there for each other [and] having each other’s back, that’s the biggest thing when it comes to ‘team.’ ”
Unrelated to the fight, Hopkins recently gave all of his teammates headphones from a company he has an NIL partnership with. And this past week, Ejiofor gave teammates jewelry.
The enhanced camaraderie has been showing up on the court, too, especially in the game that propelled St. John’s to a second straight outright Big East regular-season title, the tournament and this first Sweet 16 since 1999.
As Hopkins described it, that connection was never more present than when St. John’s held off Kansas’ late run from a 14-point deficit to tie the score with 14.1 seconds left before Dylan Darling’s drive for the winning layup as time expired.
“Guys rallied around each other. I think that did make us take a step forward with our brotherhood,” Hopkins said. “The togetherness that we show on the court; when things aren’t going well, staying together.
“When Kansas was making their run toward the end, we had to find a way to come together, weather the storm and stuff like that, stay confident in those moments when they were making their run.”
So there it is: Providence turns out to be the scene for a disappointing ending one year for St. John’s and a new beginning the next.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
