LIU vs. Chicago State Photo Gallery

Photos from LIU’s 79-75 win over Chicago State in the NEC tournament quarterfinals on March 4, 2026:

(All photos by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

Ferere nets career-high as Runnin’ Bulldogs stun USC Upstate

By Jacob Conley (@gwujake)

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — March Madness did not take long to descend on Johnson City.

Freshman Jamias Ferere hit a pair of free throws with 14 seconds left and came up with the game-sealing steal on the other end, as the No. 9 seed Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs stunned the No. 8 seed USC Upstate Spartans, 65-64, in the Big South tournament lid-lifter Wednesday.

Ferere, who finished the contest with a career-best 21 points and 12 rebounds, said his performance was a season in the making.

“This just did not happen tonight,” he said. “It came from the hours of work and practice. We stayed together and never gave up, even during the tough times this season, and it all paid off tonight.”

GWU (4-28) took an early lead on a three from Ace Talbert. After Upstate took a 6-3 lead, Spence Sims came off a screen to hit a three, tying the game at 6. The game remained tied at 10 at the first media timeout .

A pair of Gardner-Webb turnovers led to a 14-12 Spartan lead. By the time Isaiah Skinner and Karmani Gregory hit threes, Upstate led 22-13.  Farere scored four in a row and by the time Talbert hit his second triple of the game, GWU had cut the deficit to 27-24. Learic Davis answered with a trey for the Spartans, but not to be outdone, Sims canned another as Gardner-Webb closed to within 30-29 at halftime.

The teams traded baskets to open the second half, but a Sims three gave GWU a 36-35 lead with 15:55 left. After the media timeout, Jacob Hudson threw down a dunk and hit a floater as the game continued to go back and forth.

Gardner-Webb answered with a 6-0 run capped on a pair of free throws. By the time Farere converted a three-point play, GWU had its largest lead, at 54-47.  USC Upstate answered with a 9-0 run, regaining a 56-54 advantage.

Hudson grabbed a pair of big buckets in the paint to keep GWU in front 59-58 with 3:35 left. Carmelo Adkins and Gregory hit big threes for the Spartans to put them up 64-63, setting up the game’s final sequence.

STAYING THE COURSE: It’s no secret that the Runnin’ Bulldogs have struggled this season. They only have two Division I wins this season, both against the Spartans.

“People on the outside look at this team and see the record and make assumptions about this team,” GWU head coach Jeremy Luther said. “I love this team. They had every reason to quit, but they didn’t. They showed up to practice every day and gave 100 percent. Sometimes I didn’t want to come to practice but these guys never complained.”                                                                                                                                                                                                            

BRING ON THE PANTHERS: GWU’s reward for the dramatic win is a date with top seed High Point Friday at noon. The Panthers are 27-4, but their gaudy record does not intimidate the Runnin’ Bulldogs.

“This team has improved so much during the season.” Luther said. “The first time we played them, we lost by 55. The next time, we were only down by 12 at halftime. We are going to fight for 40 minutes and whether we win or lose, I am so proud of this team.”

Ferere may have put it best however, when he said, “it’s March. Why not?”

LEADING SCORERS: In addition to Farere’s career high, Jacob Hudson scored 15 points while Ace Talbert chipped in with 10. Spence Sims came off the bench to also notch double digits with 10 points.

For Upstate, Skinner led the team with a career-high 18 points in his final game for the Spartans.

UP NEXT: GWU will face a tough test when it takes on High Point on Friday in the Big South tournament quarterfinals. For Upstate, the Spartans’ season comes to a close with a 13-19 record.

Gardner-Webb has everything come together in opening-round Big South Championships victory

Gardner-Webb celebrates its opening-round victory over USC Upstate Wednesday night. (Photo:  Big South Conference)

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JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – Three wins. One against a Division I program. The outside noise. Hell, for that matter, the internal noise among the fans.

Throw it out the window. All of it.

In a season where highlights have been a challenge, Gardner-Webb saw everything come together. It wasn’t perfect – it never is. Whether there is another day to celebrate in the Mountain Empire for Gardner-Webb is to be determined, but the ninth-seeded Runnin’ Bulldogs knocked off eighth-seeded USC Upstate, 65-64, Wednesday night in the Big South tournament opener.

Excitement. Justification. Redemption. Catharsis. It was all that and more.

“It’s been a rewarding year. It’s been a frustrating year,” Gardner-Webb coach Jeremy Luther said after the game. “So many people – all the reporters and people around campus and around town, they all want to tiptoe up to me and ask, ‘How are you doing, Coach?’ Why are you doing that?”

“I’ve had a great – probably one of the most rewarding coaching years in my 28 years, because we’ve got a great group of kids, and they show up every single day, despite the record. They fight. They practice. There’s no reason to practice as hard as they’re practicing every day when you have the record we have.”

To have a season as Gardner-Webb has had is hardly unprecedented in this league. Asheville went 4=27 in Mike Morrell’s first season at the helm for the Bulldogs. Morrell is now the longest-tenured coach in the league, with a league title and a Coach of the Year award to show for it. Luther wants no part of anyone feeling sorry for him or his program.

“I’m not trying to sugarcoat anything, (but) the mark of a team is how they progress through the year,” Luther said. “When you start off 0-8 in the league and get beat the way we did in some of those games, then come back and play all these teams – Presbyterian beat us (by) 37 at home. We lost there by six. Asheville beat us by 19. We lost to them by four.”

“This team got better. I always said this team was going to be better. I really don’t care about the record. If I can keep this group together and all these freshmen become sophomores, the sophomores become juniors, and we can add a couple of people – we only lose two kids – I’ve been told we’re going to be able to go out there and get some kids like we used to get, we’ve got a chance.”

One of those freshmen to whom Luther refers provided a glimpse Wednesday of just what kind of chance the Runnin’ Bulldogs may have. Jamias Ferere, a 6-foot-6 freshman from the backyard of conference champion High Point, scored 21 and grabbed 12 boards. Ferere also sank the two winning free throws that helped Gardner-Webb advance.

“He came to me during (Upstate’s late) timeout and said, ‘Coach, give me the ball.’ He said that twice,” Luther said. Ferere expanded on his coach’s words.

“I wasn’t nervous at all. I told him to give me the ball,” Ferere said. “I’m not sure if I got it (by) accident or not. It came to me and I did what I said I could do. That’s what I pride myself on – doing what I say I can do. Getting to the line, it wasn’t anything to me. I just had to shoot them and knock them down.”

Ferere has a tie to Gardner-Webb’s prolific past. Ferere played at Putnam Science Academy in Connecticut, which has yielded Runnin’ Bulldog stars of the past like Jose Perez, Kareem Reid, and Jaheam Cornwall. Luther’s connections to the school have paid clear dividends, with the latest being Ferere.

“(Playing for Putnam) put me around other Division I players – guys more athletic than me, stronger than me, bigger than me,” Ferere said. “I played in many games with this type of atmosphere. You’ve got no choice but to survive.”

Ferere shows flashes of Perez as a shooter, as a driver, and as a believer in himself. Ferere offered a postscript following the press conference Wednesday evening.

“I was left off the All-Freshman Team, and I don’t want to make this sound selfish, but I don’t think there are five freshmen better than me in this conference,” Ferere said. “I’ve got a lot of respect for this conference. I’m from High Point. I grew up in it. I do not think there are five freshmen better than me. I think anything you look at will tell you that, as well as the eye test.”

Ferere apologized for his comments, but the point was made.

Gardner-Webb now moves on to face that team from Ferere’s hometown Friday at noon. Luther acknowledges the job Co-Head Coach of the Year Flynn Clayman has done and the differences between the two but refuses to shy away from the challenge.

“Flynn’s done a really good job,” Luther said. “I think it’s widely known that they’ve invested a ton into that program, and it’s gotten them to 25-4 or whatever they are, but that doesn’t take away from what Flynn’s done. I’m going to say this – I’m confident in my guys. (High Point) has played a lot of teams close.”

“I will say this about my guys – they’re going to go out there and fight extremely hard. We’re not going to back down. We’re going to make it a game. I feel like we’ve got a pretty good game plan. I’ll guarantee you this – if we score more than one point than they do, we win. We’re going to go out on Friday and give it everything we’ve got. I know everybody’s going to root against us – so be it. That’s fine.”

Whatever story Friday afternoon writes for this Gardner-Webb team, it will be a postscript to a story that reads like a line from a Jimmy Buffett song.

“Some of it’s magic. Some of it’s tragic.”

Luther and his players know how they will tell the story, though.

“You look at the season and you look at the record and you think, ‘Ah, man.’ I think it matured us,” Ferere said. “I think we kind of had to go through it for a moment like this. When you talk about a tense moment, we’ve had a few games where it was like this before. I’m a freshman, (guard Jacob Hudson) is a sophomore. Those moments built us for today.”

“I had, what, 21 (points) and 12 (rebounds)? That didn’t happen today. It was just a lot of stuff that we had to get through to get to a moment like this. I mean, we’ve still got a lot left to do, but I think if you look at it with the cup half-full instead of half-empty, the losses that we had, the tribulations we went through, they made us ready for this moment.”

Thanks to Wednesday, Gardner-Webb will get one more moment.

CCSU’s season ends with upset loss to Wagner in NEC quarterfinals

By Connor Wilson (@Conman_815)

NEW BRITAIN, Conn. — You can feel it in the air.

On what was a warm day, reaching the mid-50s in some spots of Connecticut, March officially felt like it had arrived.

With March comes madness, and with madness comes heartbreak. In a one-bid league like the NEC, once conference tournament season comes around, it becomes a mindset of survive, or have your season come to an abrupt conclusion.

As the NEC Tournament opened Wednesday, both No. 2 seed Central Connecticut and No. 7 seed Wagner had the same goal: Survive. The Blue Devils had lost on their home floor in the playoffs in back-to-back years, while Wagner was looking to regain the feeling of its 2024 team that won the NEC championship.

In front of a packed crowd in New Britain, it was the visiting Seahawks who came out on top, knocking off the higher-seeded Blue Devils, 70-60, behind a ferocious second-half attack and three scorers with 16 or more points. For CCSU, it meant two straight games of shocking losses at home in the postseason after dropping last year’s memorable NEC title game to Saint Francis.

“A lot of credit to Wagner, those guys play hard,” head coach Patrick Sellers said. “They had won four straight coming into the game and they’ve been playing hot at the right time.”

The opening minutes had eerily similar vibes to that infamous day last March, as the two squads combined to make two of their first 17 shots from the floor. The score was tied at two for a while before Darin Smith, Jr. got to the line on an impressive pump fake that got his defender to bite. The NEC Player of the Year knocked down two free throws, the start of an 18-point first half explosion. He would finish the night with 29 points.

“I was just playing Central Connecticut basketball,” Smith said. “Play for my team, play together, just try to read the game and play as hard as I can.”

By the under-12 media timeout, Central had built an 18-13 lead, headlined by an impressive offensive rebound from Daniel James that set up a Melo Sanchez triple. From there, Wagner responded with a 9-1 run to take a three-point lead capped off by a three from all-NEC second-teamer Nick Jones. 

The Blue Devils responded right away and tied it up after Jay Rodgers crossed up Jones and stuck a deep triple near the end of the shot clock. From there, the CCSU offense would really take off, as Roddy Jones banged one of his signature catch-and-shoot treys and Smith went on a personal 8-0 run.

“We tried a little bit of everything to get Smitty the ball,” Sellers said.

Smith’s surge was significant percentage-wise, because he started the half shooting 1-for-9 from the floor before closing 4-for-5 with three triples, all of which coming in the final four minutes of the half. The Seahawks built some momentum into the break, as Jones knocked down a pair at the line with 1.1 seconds remaining to make the score 35-31 at the intermission.

Both sides started the second half cold again, but Wagner was able to build a three-point lead, thanks to doubling up Central, 14-7, in the first 10 minutes. Another Nick Jones three broke a 42-all tie, but a few trips later, Smith hit his first second-half field goal with an assertive drive to the cup to make it 45-44. By the under-8 timeout, the Seahawks had a 50-46 lead.

From here, John Awoke awoke (pun certainly intended). The Wagner guard had a sequence in which he somehow managed to bank in a baseline jumper, then immediately after, got a friendly bounce to go his way on a three to make it 57-50 and trigger a Sellers timeout.

“My teammates did a great job finding me,” Awoke said. “I just did the easy part in knocking down the shot, but yeah, that came in a crucial time.”

The lead would never get less than seven again, peaking at 13 in the final minute thanks to two more free throws from Jones. At the final buzzer, Wagner completed the 70-60 upset over CCSU to advance to the semifinals, the second time in three years the Seahawks won a postseason game in New Britain.

“You just have to believe,” interim head coach Dwan McMillan said. “What we’ve shown the last half of the season, the connectivity has been there at a high frequency in the last month.”

Central was without its floor general in Rodgers for most of the second half after suffering a lower body injury, searching for answers and not getting them on the offensive end.

“Midway through the first half, he came off a screen and stopped really hard,” Sellers said. “He said it was his hip and his knee, and he’s had surgery on both, so I was hesitant to put him back out there.”

The loss certainly brings heartbreak, but it also puts a new plan into immediate action for Sellers and the staff with the state of college basketball.

“I told the guys, we’ll take a couple days off and then we’ll get together and have our exit meetings,” he said. “There, we’ll figure out who’s going into the portal, who’s leaving and who’s staying. We’ll have an idea of what we need recruiting-wise and start the process all over.”

As for Wagner, it is set to travel to top-seeded LIU on Saturday with a spot in the NEC championship on the line. The task may be tall, but the Seahawks have been facing adversity all year.

“It’s been an abnormal year, starting out as an assistant," McMillan said. “I moved into a teaching role, so I had to keep the energy going because the guys feed off that.”

LIU vs. FDU Photo Gallery

Photos from LIU’s 74-60 win over FDU on February 28, 2026:

(All photos by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

La Salle puts up great fight, but can't land final punch at Davidson

La Salle's Rob Dockery drives to the bucket against Davidson Sunday.  (Photo:  La Salle Athletics)

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DAVIDSON, N.C. – In March, hope springs eternal.

Baseball opening day quickly approaches. The weather gets warmer. Fans of teams – those who make their conference tournaments, at least – can quickly write off whatever their team’s regular-season results were and again believe that they could be part of the One Shining Moment montage.

That hope even springs for La Salle.

Though the Explorers have had a seemingly never-ending string of injuries to key players and a season that hasn’t gone as anyone hoped, Darris Nichols’ team still represents its coach. It refuses to quit.

La Salle saw its latest reason for hope – even if the faintest of glimmers – Sunday afternoon. The Explorers broke out to a 15-5 lead at Davidson, and though the ending felt familiar, Nichols got a glimpse of what he thought he might get from his unit in his first season in North Philadelphia.

On the obvious side, Davidson logged three double-digit scorers and knocked off La Salle, 71-64, before an announced crowd of 3,891. But…

“We continued to fight. The energy is great,” Nichols said after the game. “We’ve played hard all year. Sometimes, playing hard just isn’t enough.”

“I thought we made a lot of scouting report errors, (like) letting (guard Josh) Scovens get to his right hand, not getting out to shooters a few times, and not fouling when we’re supposed to foul. It’s just part of the game. You’ve got to be able to play hard and execute the gameplan.”

The Explorers executed the gameplan quite well in the first two segments. La Salle (8-21, 4-12 Atlantic 10) was guided on the aforementioned 15-5 run by two big triples from point guard Truth Harris and another from freshman wing Ashton Walker. Harris logged eight of the Explorers’ first 11 points. From there, the Wildcats had the answers.

Davidson (18-11, 9-7) used a 15-3 burst to take a 20-18 lead on a Devin Brown three with 6:53 remaining in the first half. The Wildcats surrendered the lead back to the Explorers on two Harris free throws and again on a Nas Hart jumper, but Brown sank another three to give the hosts an advantage they would never surrender. Rob Dockery hit two free throws to again cut it to one, but a 5-0 microburst from Davidson grew the lead back to six. A JQ Roberts dunk near the first-half horn sent the Wildcats to the locker room ahead, 33-27.

La Salle scored six of the first seven points of the second half to draw back within one. Just as the Explorers had a chance to again seize the lead, the Explorers had an empty trip that Nick Coval countered with a turnaround jumper that started a 10-1 Davidson run to put the Wildcats ahead by 11 at 50-39 at the 11:02 mark. Davidson would stretch the lead as far as 13 on multiple occasions, only for La Salle to chop that lead in half.  The home lead hovered near that span for most of the second 10 minutes.

Just when the game seemed over after two Coval free throws, though, the still-fighting Explorers had one more counter. Guard Eric Acker hoisted a three near the Explorer bench that splashed through the net as the Wildcats fouled him in the act of shooting. Acker connected on the free throw to make it 68-64 with 27 seconds remaining. La Salle could draw no closer, however, and Davidson closed it out at the free throw line.

“We were in the bonus and we didn’t put enough pressure on the rim to draw fouls,” Nichols said of the second half. “We had to settle for jump shots because they’re really good at protecting the paint. They’re one of the best teams in our league and the country in field goal percentage defense. Obviously, we’re not the best three-point shooting team, so that’s what we’ve got to do.”

La Salle also still showed one of the hallmarks of Nichols’ preferred style, getting to the free throw line 27 times in the contest. Davidson has allowed more than 27 free throw attempts in just four games this season. The Explorers hit 23 of those shots (85.2 percent), allowing them to remain in the game until the final horn.

“It is (a positive). Over the years, if we’ve gotten to the free throw line 25-plus times, we’ve usually won the game,” Nichols said. “(There were) just some defensive breakdowns throughout the game that got them on the run. They got the threes off and I think they went up 11, and we had to call timeout. Those momentum-changing threes really hurt you.”

Davidson hit 8-of-20 (40 percent) from three, with four of them coming from guard Roberts Blums. Blums hit 4-of-8 from distance in 28 minutes off the bench, resulting in a plus-17 rating for the day.

“We switched up defenses a lot,” Nichols said. “I thought that a few times we were rotating to the guys we weren’t supposed to rotate to and leaving the guys open that we were supposed to make bounce. This is executing the different defenses and all the changing defenses that we’ve had to play this year. You’ve got to be able to execute in-game.”

Blums led Davidson with 17 on 6-of-15 shooting. Scovens tallied 16 on a 7-of-12 effort, while Brown notched 13 on 4-for-7 from the deck. The Wildcats shot 47.2 percent (25-for-53) from the floor to go with the 40 percent from distance. Davidson hit 13-of-21 (61.9 percent) from the line.

Harris paced La Salle with 17 from the floor before fouling out, hitting 5-of-10 from the field and 4-of-4 from the line. Dockery booked 15 on 5-for-11 from the field and 5-for-6 from the line. La Salle shot 34.7 percent (18-for-53) from the field and 33.3 percent (5-for-15) from beyond the arc to pair with their stellar performance from the line.

Nichols also got good minutes from freshman forward Nas Hart, who knocked down 3-of-7 from the field and 3-of-4 from the line to finish with nine points and six boards.

“He’s been getting better and better,” Nichols said. “He’s a guy that’s come into practice and had great energy, been super athletic, and has changed some things around the rim. At the five, he’s been the most consistent. We need the other fives to step up.”

Nichols still sees potential in the Explorers, even with the challenges they have faced.

“Our guys have still got great energy,” Nichols said. “We still have a lot to play for.”

La Salle returns to Glaser Arena in Philadelphia to square off with Fordham on Senior Night Wednesday. Tip time is set for 6:30 (Eastern), with ESPN+ handling the coverage. Davidson hosts Saint Joseph’s for its Senior Night Wednesday, as well. Tip time from Belk Arena is set for 7:00. ESPN+ will also stream that contest.

DAVIDSON 71, LA SALLE 64

LA SALLE (8-21, 4-12 A10)

Hart 3-7 3-4 9, Walker 1-6 2-2 5, T. Harris 5-10 4-4 17, Johnson 2-8 4-4 8, Dockery 5-11 5-6 15, J. Harris 0-5 2-4 2, Lipacis 0-0 0-0 0, Daniel 1-1 0-0 2, Acker 1-3 3-3 6, Strand 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 18-53 23-27 64.

DAVIDSON (18-11, 9-7)

Platteeuw 1-2 0-0 2, Scovens 7-12 2-6 16, Friedrichsen 1-4 0-0 3, D. Brown 4-7 3-4 13, S. Brown 0-1 0-0 0, Logan 1-3 0-0 2, Roberts 1-2 1-2 3, Blums 6-15 1-3 17, Adam 2-3 2-2 7, Coval 2-4 4-4 8, Joses 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-53 13-21 71.

Halftime:  Davidson 33-27. 3-Point goals:  Davidson 8-20 (Platteeuw 0-1, Scovens 0-1, Friedrichsten 1-3, D. Brown 2-2, S. Brown 0-1, Blums 4-8, Adam 1-2, Coval 0-2), La Salle 5-15 (Walker 1-3, T. Harris 3-5, Johnson 0-2, Acker 1-3, Strand 0-2). Fouled out:  T. Harris (LAS).  Rebounds:  Davidson 37 (Logan/Adam 6), La Salle 31 (Hart/Walker/Johnson 6). Total fouls:  La Salle 19, Davidson 19. Technicals:  NA.

 

Villanova overmatched as St. John’s crushes Wildcats behind Ejiofor’s triple-double

Zuby Ejiofor (24) recorded fourth triple-double in modern St. John’s history Saturday with 16 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists as Red Storm routed Villanova. (Photo by Wendell Cruz/Imagn Images)

By Jake Copestick (@JakeCopestick)

NEW YORK — St. John’s played with a vengeance Saturday, one like it had just been throttled by 30 points in their previous game, missing its final 24 field goal attempts in a blowout loss at UConn.

Unfortunately for Villanova, they just happened to be the next opponent for the Red Storm. 

Also compounding the Wildcats’ misfortune was Johnnies head coach Rick Pitino declaring Saturday night’s game the most important of the season for his 15th-ranked squad earlier in the week.

And just to add the icing on the cake, Pitino even donned his famous white suit despite saying he would keep it hanging in his closet.

St. John’s used a combination of angst from Wednesday’s loss, coupled with an urgency from Pitino’s rallying cry to totally overwhelm Villanova from start to finish, crushing the Wildcats, 89-57, in front of a sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden. 

The margin of victory was the largest for St. John’s (23-6, 16-2 Big East) against Villanova in the 135th all-time meeting between the two original Big East members.

After Bryce Lindsay opened the scoring with a tough right-handed finish, St. John’s responded right away, with Dylan Darling finding a wide-open Dillon Mitchell for an easy two-handed dunk. It was a fitting play to set the tone for the night. That jumpstarted an 11-0 run by St. John’s, who grabbed the lead and not only never gave it back, but never allowed Villanova to get remotely close to it. The Wildcats held the lead for just a mere 22 seconds in Saturday’s contest. They also trailed by 30 points before halftime. 

Offensively, the Red Storm poured it on Villanova all night, with Zuby Ejiofor recording just the fourth triple-double in school history, putting up 16 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists, while adding three blocks. The statistical feat put the senior forward on a short list that includes David Cain, Ron Artest, and Kadary Richmond. 

“I think (Pitino) has the perfect player in Zuby,” Villanova head coach Kevin Willard lamented. “Zuby and him really match so well together. I think that’s why they’ve been so successful.”

The Red Storm shot nearly 53 percent from the field, and for a team that isn’t reliant on the three-point line to score, made eight of its 15 attempts from long distance. Ten different players scored for the Johnnies on Saturday, four of whom, including Ejiofor, scored in double figures.

“Zuby was incredible for us as a five man to get 10 assists,” said Pitino. “He was well rested because he took a day off against Connecticut.”

However, it was the defensive side of the ball where St. John’s really put it to the Wildcats. The Red Storm scored 29 points off of 16 Villanova turnovers, with 18 of those points in the first half, the most emphatic points coming when Ian Jackson brought the crowd to its feet with a windmill dunk off of a turnover by Villanova’s Chris Jeffrey. It was one of five steals for Jackson, and two of a team-high 19 points for St. John’s. 

The size and brute force that the Red Storm’s front line possesses really bothered Villanova. Couple that with an aggressive duo of guards in Jackson and Dylan Darling, and it’s a recipe for an off shooting night.

St. John’s held Villanova to percentages in the thirties from both sides of the arc. Tyler Perkins, who had scored 15 or more points in 11 of Villanova’s last 12 games, was held to just six points. Bryce Lindsay, who made his first shot, went just 2-for-10 the rest of the game. Matt Hodge added six points in a season-low 13 minutes, because of injury. He tried to do a spin move in the paint early in the second half, and went down, unable to get up or put pressure on his right leg. Willard has no update on the severity of Hodge’s injury at the time.

“I thought that Darling is one of those guys who’s just a pest,” Willard said of St. John’s point guard. “Everyone looks at him like he’s not that good of a player, but man, he does so many good things. More than anything, I thought Darling set the tone defensively. He picked us up full-court, and then Jackson came in and just picked up that pressure.”

“And then you have their guards who know they can be aggressive because they have Zuby back there. It makes a huge difference. Then you have Mitchell who can really disrupt, you’ve got Bryce Hopkins, who played power forward last year, now playing small forward. That front line is really good.”

Willard worked for Pitino for a decade. He knows how intense he can be after a bad loss like the one St. John’s took on the chin on Wednesday night. He recalled what those times were like. They weren’t fun. At all.

“I’m not bullshitting you, I don’t have hair because of him,” he said. “I had a full set of hair when I started working for him. It’s the most miserable experience in life, like( you fear for your life everyday. Everyone laughs when I say that, but you think you’re going to get fired. It’s miserable. As he’s gotten older, he’s probably become more of a cranky old bitch than he was. You literally fear for your life when you walk in. Like ,when he walks in the facility, he’s walking in at 6:30 and you’ve been there since 5:30 thinking you have everything right. He comes in and asks you the one question that you don’t know. He’s that intense. He always has been.”

Pitino has a method to his madness. St. John’s responded in a big way, putting a beatdown on Villanova that the team from Queens had never done before.

For the Wildcats, it was their worst loss since a 93-56 defeat at the hands of Kentucky at Rupp Arena on February 9, 1997. Rick Pitino was the coach of that Kentucky team. Steve Masiello, now Pitino’s associate head coach at St. John’s, was a freshman walk-on for the Wildcats.

Willard is not overly worried about the result of the game. There are two games left for his team to fine-tune things before the Big East tournament, and ultimately, the NCAA Tournament. He offered the same message Saturday that he did a week ago after UConn ran away from his team in the second half.

“We’re going to move on,” he said. “We have two more games left. You get your ass kicked every once in a while.”

Kevin Willard quote book: St. John’s

By Jake Copestick (@JakeCopestick)

On St. John’s coming out with more intensity:

“I mean, no matter what, this was going to be a tough game. I worked for (Rick Pitino) for 10 years, so I kind of imagined what practice was like for the last two days with them. I think the biggest difference is that they’re a veteran team. (Pitino) knew that Zuby (Ejiofor) wasn’t going to come out and lay an egg, and he didn’t. He was phenomenal defensively, the way he was switching and communicating. Give them a lot of credit, they played well.”

On what he can tell his team after a loss like this:

“We’re going to move on. We have two more games left. Life happens. You get your ass kicked every once in a while.”

On St. John’s defensive intensity and physicality outside of Zuby Ejiofor:

“When Dillon Mitchell’s playing that way, their whole season changed once he started. He’s in the starting lineup, the guy doesn’t shoot, he doesn’t take shots. He’s just such a positive factor on every end. He knows how to move without the ball, he doesn’t look for the ball. I think the biggest difference is you’ve got Bryce Hopkins, who played power forward last year, now playing small forward. That front line is really good.”

On an update on Matt Hodge’s injury:

“No.”

On concern about scoring droughts on offense: 

“No, I mean, we still won seven out of our last nine games. We lost to UConn and St. John’s. Unfortunately, I caught UConn after they played their worst game of the year. It seems like God is punishing me for my sins.”

On Ian Jackson’s performance:

“You obviously didn’t watch the first time he played against us. He played much better the first time he played against us. He must be a big fan of mine. He’s good man, defensively, he gets after it. I thought that (Dylan) Darling is one of those guys who’s just a pest, and everyone looks at him like he’s not that good of a player, but man, he does so many good things. More than anything, I thought Darling set the tone defensively. He picked us up full-court, and then Jackson came in and just picked up that pressure. I think when they’re playing like that, and they made shots early, we knew they were going to come out. He started talking about they were shooting too many twos, and we gave them a couple threes. Zuby hit that big three late for that first run, that was kind of a killer. He’s a good player.”

On what Rick Pitino practices were like after a big loss:

“I’m not bullshitting you, I don’t have hair because of him. I had a full set of hair when I started working for him. Like, it’s the most miserable experience in life, like you fear for your life everyday. Everyone laughs when I say that, but you think you’re going to get fired. It’s miserable. As he’s gotten older, he’s probably become more of a cranky old bitch than he was. Like, you literally fear for your life when you walk in. Like, when he walks in the facility, he’s walking in at 6:30 and you’ve been there since 5:30 thinking you have everything right. He comes in and asks you the one question that you don’t know. He’s that intense. He always has been. He’s got the most energy of any coach that I’ve been around. I think he has the perfect player in Zuby. Zuby and him really match so well together. I think that’s why they’ve been so successful.”

On the 18 points off turnovers by St. John’s in the first half:

“What’s really good is that Zuby is so good at reading what you’re trying to do. So you try to set pick-and-rolls with your five man, he’s going to switch, you’re switching with Mitchell a lot too. So you’re really not rolling and taking advantage of that. And then you have their guards who know they can be aggressive because they have Zuby back there. It makes a huge difference. Then you have Mitchell, who can really disrupt. It’s a really disruptive team. We struggled with them the first time, and obviously we struggled again with them this time.”

On his message to the team at halftime:

“I wanted to come out and play better in the second half, I thought we did that for most of it. We got it back down to 17 for a little bit. Losing Matt was difficult, because emotionally, Matt is such a great kid. Malachi is out there for 30 minutes, which he isn’t used to. I love the way we came out for the first 16 minutes in the second half. The last four minutes were a little disappointing.”