Eye on the Storm

St. John's Director of Athletics Mike Cragg returns to the Eye on the Storm podcast to look back on the first year of Rick Pitino in Queens. We discuss the ups and downs of the season, the unfortunate abrupt end, Selection Sunday, all the projects in the works on campus and looking ahead to the future.  Storm Marketing - https://www.stormmarketingny.com/ Flat Top Fund - https://www.flattopfun...

St. John's did everything in their control from February 18th on, they won five games in a row, knocked off Seton Hall on Thursday of the Big East Tournament and went toe to toe again with UConn falling by just 5. 20 wins overall and 11 in the Big East was not good enough to put St. John's in the NCAA tournament as the committee left them on the outside looking in. We're joined by o...

It's been 24 years but St. John's knocked off the 4 seed Seton Hall Pirates on Thursday afternoon at MSG to advance to Friday night of the Big East Tournament. It was a 19 point drubbing, a balanced effort that powered St. John's. They turned Seton Hall over, they dominated on the glass and left no doubt who the better team was on the floor. Next up is UConn at 5:30pm on Friday as S...

His senior year was memorable moment after memorable moment, shots that went in that will be remembered by St. John's fans for life. The shifty guard with a killer instinct was molded by streetball in the Bronx and made sure he delivered when the lights inside Madison Square Garden shined bright. We discuss Hardy's beginnings, his tough road to get to St. John's, a rocky junior seas...

In a blink of an eye, or more specifically four games, the St. John's season went from dead to back on life support to very much alive. St. John's is playing the best basketball of their season at just the right time. So we'll sit down with Assistant Coach Bob Walsh who has been around for every second of it to discuss what's changed, what has happened and why. The emergence of...

St. John's made sure to carry that positive momentum from the Creighton win on the road to Indianapolis as they destroyed Butler 82-59. SJU swept the season series with the Bulldogs for just the third time in program history and is peaking at the right time. Behind a huge effort from Glenn Taylor Jr and RJ Luis, St. John's used defense and non stop offense to never let the foot off the g...

When St. John's needed their best game of the season, they got it. Behind 27 points from Daniss Jenkins and 18 points from Jordan Dingle, the Red Storm took down #15 Creighton inside Madison Square Garden.  It was a complete game, one where they had a halftime lead and never let it go. A complete game, with tough defense, and performances that stood out beyond the box score. Simeon Wilcher, G...

St. John's is back in the win column, albeit an ugly return, a return none the less. Johnnies stop their losing streak with a 90-85 win over Georgetown on the road as they avoided a second half collapse but came very close to it. The capstone to Wednesday came with Mike Repole before the game pledging his intention to help Rick Pitino and St. John's financially for the basketball program...

St. John's had a 19 point lead over Seton Hall in the first half, they had a half time lead against an opponent again, and wouldn't you know it they crumbled in the 2nd half again. Boos came down from the crowd as St. John's continued to display a lack of toughness when adversity hit for the millionth time this season. After the game Rick Pitino had an all-time press conference that...

Stop me if you heard this one before, St. John's blew a second half lead again. A big opportunity presented itself in the form of a quad 1 road opportunity. St. John's took a lead into halftime, and when the game restarted St. John's, as they have all year, did not come out with any fire and ended up losing. Porous defense, Josh Oduro, and not a single made three for the second stra...

Marquette beat St. John's the same way it did in the first match-up. With a second half take over as St. John's let a 15 point first half lead slip away, as well as a 10 point second half lead go. Tyler Kolek turned St. John's into "barbecue chicken" beating them on every possession. With St. John's dropping their 6th game in 8 tries, time is running out as a promisin...

Sold out MSG was in for a fight, at least for the first 27 minutes of the game. After that it was all UConn as they pulled away and St. John's didn't have any help for Daniss Jenkins to come back. St. John's has lost 5 of their last 6 and fans are in a bit of panic mode. The poor three point shooting, and free throw shooting reared it's ugly head again and it's got Coach P...

St. John's had a week off to get ready for a road test in the Cintas Center. They had previously handled Xavier in December by 15 points. This time, Sean Miller would be ready as Xavier took care of St. John's 88-77. While the final score was not indicitive of how close the game was late, St. John's struggled in the first half, and there's a lot of questions and problems starti...

St. John's is 13-7 on the season, 5-4 in conference play following a 20 point win over Villanova. They snapped a three game losing streak following a three game winning streak, battling adversity, COVID-19, and more. St. John's Assistant Coach Bob Walsh is back for Coachcast part four where we go over everything that's been going on with the team. We'll dive into the improved p...

It was another first in forever type of night for St. John's as they handled Villanova easily, again, this time at home. In front of over 12,000 fans, St. John's swept the season series against Villanova for the first time since the 1992-1993 season. It was all led by the tremendous defense by St. John's that held the Wildcats to 16% shooting from deep, as Joel Soriano bounced back...

Twice in two weeks St. John's has lost a game to a ranked Big East Opponent by one point. Heartbreak part deux happened inside Madison Square Garden on Saturday when St. John's valiant comeback effort fell short as Chris Ledlum and Daniss Jenkins both missed crucial threes at the end of the game. Turnovers in the first half didn't help, poor defense in the 2nd half didn't help,...

St. John's once again proved that the Prudential Center was a house of horrors, getting their doors blown off for the second consecutive game, and dropping their second game in a row this season, 80-65. The game wasn't competitive for the most part as St. John's basically went through the motions until the final buzzer sounded. With Rick Pitino and Jordan Dingle both out with COVID,...

It was freezing, snowing and miserable outside the arena, when the buzzer sounded and the game was over St. John's would feel equally as terrible as the weather outside. A 66-65 loss after a back and forth 2nd half that was punctuated by missed calls by referees. St. John's has a quick turn around with Seton Hall on Tuesday as they try to wash the taste of this one out of their mouths. F...

St. John's has had some very interesting coaches patrolling the sidelines in Jamaica, Queens. One of those head coaches was Fran Fraschilla, now with ESPN as an analyst and broadcaster, Fraschilla was 37 when he got the St. John's job. He was a master recruiter and took SJU to the tournament for the first time in 5 years when he got there. While it didn't last long, Fraschilla was t...

St. John's is currently tied for first place in the Big East and has started conference play 4-1 for the first time in 23 years. The Johnnies came out hot against Providence at MSG and then had to withstand a mighty counterpunch. In the end, some missed free throws by St. John's and a timely rebound by RJ Luis made it a rollercoaster of a game that ended with a 75-73 win. Devin Carter da...

St. John's went on the road and did something they haven't done since 1993, and that's beat Villanova at The Finn. Thanks to Joel Soriano and Daniss Jenkins the Johnnies were able to overcome not having Chris Ledlum, and a new career high by Brady Dunlap made sure of that. Dunlap got his first start as a Johnnie and rewarded Rick Pitino with 12 points in the 2nd half, to finish with...

St. John's capped off their season at Carnesecca Arena with an 86-70 win over the Butler Bulldogs to improve to 10-4 on the season, and 2-1 in Big East play. It was a huge night for the Johnnies who used their tenacious pressure defense in the 2nd half to make Butler uncomfortable. With Posh Alexander returning to Queens, it was the Johnnies who would hound the Dogs into submission. Brady Dun...

A lot has happened since our last sit down with St. John's Assistant Coach Bob Walsh. Road wins, conference wins, close losses, a new defense unleashed and so much more. We discuss the lessons learned from UConn, preparing for conference play moving forward, the rotations, how freshmen must battle adversity and learn plus so much more. Follow the podcast on Twitter: @EyeonStormPod = Eye on th...

St. John's had a great opportunity of stealing a win from the national champions on the road. Earlier in the day they'd learn that Donovan Clingan would miss the game for UConn and RJ Luis would be suiting up, so things were breaking right for St. John's. They took a 6 point lead into the half as the new zone defense was on display and working effectively once again. Some late mista...

The Red Storm kicked off conference play in style with a wire-to-wire win over the Xavier Musketeers, 81-66. It was the most balanced and complete effort of the season by the Johnnies and one that left Rick Pitino very happy after the game. Nahiem Alleyne got the start, Joel Soriano dominated the 2nd half, and St. John's started their conference play season 1-0. Then we preview the big match...