Four days from today, I turn (surprisingly to some) 26; and to commemorate this occasion, today will be the first of a five-part series in which I recount the 26 most memorable games that I have either called or covered in my five-year career. Please note that although I broadcast a variety of sports, this list will be restricted solely to basketball; and even if the final score may not be considered great, some of these games (most of them in fact) have a great amount of sentimental value to me. With that said, let's start the list with No. 26 on the countdown.
26) St. John's vs. Howard - November 22, 2008, Carnesecca Arena
This was significant for several reasons. For starters, it was my return to the broadcast booth for WSJU after having missed the season opener the week prior while interning at WFAN. Second, this game was the first in which Vincenzo's Pizza became a part of my broadcasts as my soon-to-be ubiquitous sponsor, beginning a partnership in which the "incredibly good and insanely amazing" pizzeria and myself went together like Mel Allen and Ballantine beer during Yankee games of the 1960s. In addition, this game was also the birth of "The Hitman." With Keith Arias in the booth with me to provide color commentary that soon set the standard that all of my future broadcast partners lived up to, we watched D.J. Kennedy score eleven of St. John's first nineteen points, with all but two of the eleven coming from beyond the arc. After Kennedy's third three-pointer, Keith chimed in with this quote that has become part of WSJU history:
"You may as well call him 'The Hitman' - he's a real sharpshooter out there!" - Keith AriasBy the way, St. John's continued their domination of Howard even after Kennedy's hot start, destroying the Bison by the final of 79-44 to improve to 3-1 on the young season.
25) St. John's vs. Marist - December 28, 2007, Madison Square Garden (Holiday Festival)
My first basketball broadcast, a 76-47 St. John's win over Sacred Heart one month and eight days prior, wasn't anything special other than the fact that it was my first hoops call. However, my first play-by-play experience at Madison Square Garden (also the first Garden broadcast in WSJU's modern era) was a little more entertaining. In what was arguably the defining moment for Tomas Jasiulionis in a Red Storm uniform, the Lithuanian big man scored a career-high twelve points; including his first and only three in red and white, as St. John's overcame a late rally from the Red Foxes to prevail 62-59 and reach the championship game of the Holiday Festival, which they eventually lost to Virginia Tech the following day.
24) Iona vs. Marist - February 12, 2012, Hynes Athletics Center
This game marks the first off-air appearance for me on this list, as I covered this MAAC tilt for this outlet, something I never thought possible until Iona sports information director Brian Beyrer was one of the first in his field to grant me a media credential for A Daly Dose Of Hoops when I went up to New Rochelle to cover the Gaels' November matchup with Northeast Conference champion LIU Brooklyn. This game, one in which Marist surprisingly hung tough with conference leader Iona in the second half; even taking the lead on the Gaels just shortly after the intermission, turned out to be an 83-74 Gaels win, but the highlight was not the score. Scott Machado, who has since gone on to be the subject of many pieces on this site, took matters into his own hands late in the final stanza, grinding his way to a 10-point, 11-rebound, 10-assist performance that gave the point guard just the second triple-double in Iona history. (FYI: Without Machado, this game probably would not have made the cut, as Scott's determination to win the game while just so happening to rack up the triple-double was what made this game meaningful)
23) Iona vs. Fairfield - March 4, 2012, MassMutual Center (MAAC Tournament semifinal)
The first of several doubleheaders in this countdown, the journey to Springfield, Massachusetts alone is enough to qualify for a spot on the list. Following a night in Piscataway to cover a largely forgettable St. John's loss to Rutgers, I returned home to Queens at 1:40 in the morning and left almost five hours later (on no sleep, which comes into play again later in the countdown) to board a Greyhound bus out of Manhattan headed for the home of the Basketball Hall of Fame. After a pregame media room meal with my colleague and mentor Bob Heussler, I encountered Manhattan College superfan Ronnie Weintraub; surprisingly in good spirits after his beloved Jaspers lost to Siena in double overtime the night before, before making my way out to the court. What ensued was an underrated, back-and-forth battle between two teams that deserved their eventual trips to the postseason. Led by Scott Machado, Iona took a two-point lead into the intermission that they soon built on early in the second half before Rakim Sanders sparked a 13-1 Fairfield run that allowed the Stags to seize momentum the rest of the way, as Fairfield took advantage of Iona's excessive reliance on their "Big Three" (Machado, Mike Glover and Momo Jones) to defeat the Gaels 85-75 and advance to the MAAC championship against Loyola.
22) St. John's vs. West Virginia - March 8, 2008, Madison Square Garden
A noon tipoff for which I was at the "World's Most Famous Arena" at 10am despite just five hours of sleep turned into the first overtime game I got to call on the hardwood. Knowing that they were eliminated from Big East Tournament contention before they even tipped off that afternoon, the Red Storm attempted to send senior guard Eugene Lawrence out a winner. For thirty-nine minutes and fifty-eight seconds, it looked as though they would. After a then-freshman Malik Boothe calmly iced two free throws in the final seconds to put St. John's up 68-66, West Virginia had to drive the length of the court for the tie since they were out of timeouts. Backup guard Joe Mazzulla was unfazed by that challenge, taking it coast to coast on his own to hit a running layup to tie the game and send it into the extra session after St. John's was unable to pull it out at the buzzer. The Mountaineers prevailed 83-74 in a game that, for a while, ranked as one of the better ones I had seen behind the microphone.
21) St. Francis (NY) vs. Robert Morris - December 4, 2010, Pope Physical Education Center
Mike Rice, who was just three weeks into his maiden season at Rutgers after guiding Robert Morris to two consecutive Northeast Conference championships, had the day off and spent it in Brooklyn watching his former Colonials squad take on a St. Francis team that started the season off strong for their own first-year head coach, former St. John's assistant Glenn Braica. As is usually the case between the Colonials and Terriers, the outcome of the game was in doubt until the final seconds. With the game tied at 57, Akeem Bennett scored the final six points of the game to lift the Terriers to the upset and send the hundreds that packed the stands into a frenzy. The game's other defining moments came early in the second half, when a Robert Morris player (I forget who it was) created a three-point play opportunity that made Rice jump up from his bleacher seat behind press row; and after the game, when I left my perch as public address announcer to catch up with the aforementioned coach, who remembered our encounter from Big East media day two months prior and has since become a personal friend.
20) St. John's vs. Louisville - March 4, 2012, XL Center (Big East Tournament quarterfinal)
The back end of a doubleheader in which the aforementioned MAAC Tournament game between Iona and Fairfield served as my opening act featured me having to leave Springfield at the under-4 TV timeout in the second half in order to catch my Amtrak connection to Hartford, where I covered this overtime thriller featuring the team I admittedly knew nothing about when I first started broadcasting, but quickly grew attached to. Having secured the No. 2 seed and a double bye, St. John's was enjoying their finest season in program history, one in which they defeated Connecticut on the road and eventually advanced to the Fresno regional semifinals in the NCAA Tournament. On this night, junior guard Shenneika Smith was the deciding factor, as her refuse-to-lose mentality propelled St. John's back from a furious Louisville run. Smith's 24 points included four of the first five in the extra session, which gave the Red Storm all the support they would need to emerge victorious. On a sad note, this game also turned out to be the last time I got to speak to St. John's coach Kim Barnes Arico, who accepted the vacant head coaching position at Michigan one month later. Her ten-year stint in Queens, where she literally resurrected a program that was largely nonexistent on her way to becoming its all-time winningest coach, provided some of the greatest moments in St. John's women's basketball history, and will not soon be forgotten.
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