Most, if not all, of the attention around New York this weekend is focused on the New York Giants and their quest to cap off yet another improbable run to a championship when they square off against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI on Sunday. What only the die-hard sports fans in the Empire State will see is a gridiron appetizer that stands alone as its own main event the day before, a battle for in-state bragging rights between a school that is the face of the college basketball landscape in the largest city in the country and the 2003 national champion that brands itself as the state's marquee college program despite enduring endless criticism from their downstate neighbors for that arguably valid boast.
At 10-12 this season and 4-6 in the Big East, St. John's has not achieved the level of success they enjoyed a year ago under Steve Lavin. The senior-laden Red Storm advanced to the school's first NCAA Tournament since 2002 a year ago, giving a long-suffering fan base the hope and confidence it had clamored for since the days of Lou Carnesecca in the 1980s and early '90s. However, it has been a long road back. With the youngest team in program history and assistant coach Mike Dunlap guiding St. John's while Lavin has taken most of this season to recover from prostate cancer surgery he underwent in October, the Red Storm are just now starting to turn the corner after wins in two of their last three games. A seven-point loss to Duke that serves as one of the most inspiring games the team has played this year sandwiches victories over West Virginia and DePaul; and next up for St. John's is a Syracuse team ranked second in the nation, but one that returns nearly everyone from the squad that the Red Storm nearly defeated in last year's Big East tournament.
"If D.J. (Kennedy, who tore his ACL six minutes into the game) played the whole game, St. John's would have won," said Rumble In the Garden columnist and Daly Dose enthusiast Quinn Rochford; who also believes that the Red Storm could also have ended what turned out to be a national championship run for UConn, although that is another issue.
Led by the dynamic duo of freshmen D'Angelo Harrison (16.4 points per game and 36 percent from three-point range) and Moe Harkless, (16.3 points and 8.7 rebounds per game) the Red Storm have the offensive firepower to stay with the Orange. The experience is another story, however; as St. John's will once again be starting five freshmen against a Syracuse starting five whose youngest player will likely be returning sophomore Fab Melo, who Red Storm head coach Steve Lavin dubbed the "air traffic control tower" of Syracuse's world-famous 2-3 zone defense.
"We know that they're young," said Lavin on a Big East coaches' conference call yesterday, "but we don't want to use that as a crutch or an excuse for not winning now." "We want to be competitive this year and not wait for the future." In today's pregame press conference, Mike Dunlap addressed the prospect of the game serving as a de facto home contest for the visitors while also referencing his team's knowledge of a long and storied rivalry.
"With all of the social media out there, the players are well aware of Syracuse, the fans, and all of that," Dunlap said. "What's going to be great is that the Garden is going to be full, and the fact that it has a Syracuse flair to it too just adds to the rivalry. Any of those challenges that our guys can face that they feel a little new about will ultimately be good for us."
About six hours north of St. John's, the mood and the feelings are just a little different.
Syracuse University really has every right in the world to brag when it comes to their program and their meetings with St. John's, and this is coming from a St. John's alumnus and broadcaster. Although the Orange have won just 48 of the 85 meetings all time against the Red Storm, they have taken six straight and twelve of the last thirteen dating back to February of 2000. In fact, Syracuse has not lost consecutive games to the Red Storm since 1993.
Prior to the 2010-11 season, I had the opportunity to interview Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim at Big East media day, and one of the many topics I asked the coach about was his team's ability to take over the "World's Most Famous Arena" in recent years. Boeheim admitted that his team liked playing at the Garden, calling it a "good venue" for the Orange; but added that "when we play St. John's, there probably won't be too much orange," mentioning the equally rabid Red Storm fan base amid the sea of Syracuse fans in midtown Manhattan.
If there are any positive nuggets to take away from this for the Red Storm as they prepare for a David versus Goliath matchup, two come to mind right away. The last time the Red Storm came into a game against Syracuse having lost six straight to the Orange, they beat them in 2006 at Madison Square Garden for what currently serves as the most recent St. John's win in the rivalry. In addition; the last time the Red Storm were largely dismissed before taking the stage for a game of this magnitude, they thoroughly destroyed then-No. 4 Duke 93-78 at the Garden just over a year ago.
One school is New York City's college team; the other New York State's college team whether one wants to admit it or not, a title earned because of their consistency over the last decade while the other has just returned to the national spotlight. Both schools treat this as a big game, and rightfully so. Two teams looking to silence the other and their critics once and for all. It doesn't get much better than this. Heck, Giants-Patriots II may not even be able to live up to the hype and actual on-court happenings of this one. It's going to be a wild and enjoyable ride at Madison Square Garden tomorrow afternoon. If you plan on showing up, you won't regret it. Trust me.
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