Latest Johnnies result shows all-access look at sad truths within program

Mike Anderson (second from left) has left much to be desired from coaching aspect through first two months of St. John’s season as Red Storm has crisis brewing. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

NEW YORK — How many times must we tell the tale?

How many times must we fall?

St. John’s, and by extension, its fan base, has spent most of the past four decades — and the last 22 years — living in the lost memory of being a local powerhouse relevant on the national landscape, still without a victory in the NCAA Tournament since the final year of Bill Clinton’s presidency, recalled every time the false sense of security and glimmer of hope sets in on the corner of Union and Utopia.

Mike Anderson has spent the past three-and-a-half years working on the sound of the Red Storm’s band of hardwood maestros. He and his staff have tried, on many an occasion, to get the on-court music right. But more often than not in recent times, it feels as though two go out working while three stay home at night when it relates to the Johnnies’ travails on the floor at Carnesecca Arena, Madison Square Garden, or anywhere in between.

The latest performance, a Wednesday night home tilt against a resurgent Xavier team boasting a Top 25 ranking to match its Top 25 offense in year one of Sean Miller’s second stint in Cincinnati, offered those watching at home a look behind the scenes and into the inner sanctum of the program, in a sense, by way of Fox Sports’ annual all-access telecast in which both head coaches sport microphones and the cameras follow coach and players alike into huddles, locker rooms, and anywhere else that occupies notable space on game night. And what the nationally televised audience saw was Anderson exposed at every corner, overmatched in his in-game tactics, dead wrong in his assessment of the opposition, and at the controls of a team that looked like a ship without a rudder in the majority of its timeout huddles during a contest that will go down in the record books as an 84-79 victory for the Musketeers whose final score was much closer than — and by no means indicative of — what the actual game proceedings let on.

Following up a disastrous loss at Villanova in which St. John’s 11-point lead on the Wildcats disappeared almost instantly during a 17-2 run to end the first half, a stretch in which Anderson declined to call a timeout, the embattled coach watched his team give up 16 unanswered points to Xavier’s free-wheeling, high-octane offense. From there, the Musketeers got clean and efficient shots almost at will, whether it was through the two-way play of Jack Nunge and Zach Freemantle, or the bulldog mentality from point guard Souley Boum. Only after a 14-2 run midway through the second half in which St. John’s pared an 18-point gap to just six did it appear that the game was actually attainable, but by then, it was too little, too late for a team that — more often than not, and most times through the fault of Anderson not putting his players in the proper positions to close games out against tougher opponents — has been unable to get out of its own way this season, even in the face of one of the softest non-conference schedules in the nation.

Suddenly, situations have changed and St. John’s is not who it used to think it is.

How strange.

“We kind of dug ourselves a hole in the first half,” Anderson said in a Captain Obvious moment during his postgame press conference. “I thought the extra effort plays went in (Xavier’s) favor in the first half. I thought in the second half, we were much, much better. Let’s give them credit. We didn’t play great, but I thought we fought to the bitter end.”

“I thought we came out with great, great energy. We missed a lot of shots, and I thought they had a lot of great second effort plays. You’ve got to be able to make shots, knock shots down.”

Outside of the first four minutes, before a media timeout interrupted Xavier’s 16-0 spurt, Anderson could have been granted the benefit of the doubt. After that? The deluge was in full effect as the Musketeers broke St. John’s pressure at will, and Boum — whom the embattled Red Storm coach openly said in his halftime speech would “no way” play another full 20-minute half — went the distance and in the process, made Mike Anderson look like Mike Francesa by comparison with yet another blast gone horribly wrong before he was saved from getting lost in alibis by the valiant, belated rally from a Johnnies team led by David Jones and Joel Soriano while Andre Curbelo, Montez Mathis and Posh Alexander — the latter of whom continuing to regress beyond the mean in this, his junior campaign — were, once again, nowhere to be found.

“We want to bottle it up for 40 minutes,” Anderson said of the furious fight down the stretch. “We’ve seen this all year long where we play a half where we really get after it, or 30 minutes. Now, in conference play, teams are a little bit more familiar with you and you’ve got to be able to make the subtle adjustment in the game.”

“These guys have been through the rigors of Big East basketball before. They know what it takes. Now, we’ve just got to be able to go out and apply it.”

Evidently, Anderson was either addressing a coach other than himself, or simply pretending, like he knew the plan. St. John’s fans, who have spent the last quarter-century clamoring for a consistent winner, know better.

Red Storm fans have stopped pretending about how they feel with regard to the current state of affairs in Queens, and rightfully so. Some have even stopped pretending their love for the Johnnies is real, at least with the current regime that is headed for the same end as the bulk of leaders trusted with the reins of the once-proud program Lou Carnesecca walked away from when he announced his retirement 30 years ago; a school that continues to bill itself as New York’s College Team but now is being upstaged in recent years by smaller institutions such as Iona, with more NCAA Tournament trips in the last decade than St. John’s has made this century, and who boasts a legendary head coach in Rick Pitino who is being looked to with wistful eyes and wanton gazes by the longtime king of the college basketball area in the hope that maybe, just maybe, the glaring errors in practice and management for decades can be fixed.

Until then, as Anderson proved again Wednesday, sadness can — and will — prevail. And with an all-access look at the current situation being broadcast to a nationwide audience Wednesday, everybody now knows how love can fail.