JUST LIKE OLD TIMES
Mullin in middle of scuffle as St. John’s tops G-Town
PICK A John Thompson, any John Thompson. If he’s coaching a Georgetown basketball team, then St. John’s coach Chris Mullin would like a piece of him.
Throw in a Patrick Ewing for good measure. It doesn’t matter to Mullin, the Triggerman from Troy Avenue in the Flatlands. Mullin is forever ready to square in his home Garden ring, looking at all comers as tomato cans to shoot down, one by one.
That was the scene Wednesday night on Eighth Avenue as a hard foul by St. John’s forward Amar Alibegovic led to Georgetown guard L.J. Peak getting in his face. There was a shove in Alibegovic’s back by Georgetown center Bradley Hayes that escalated things, and then the coaches looked ready to rip off the suit jackets in the name of Big East lore. In front of the Georgetown bench, Mullin and Georgetown coach John Thompson III shouted at each other. It will go down in the record books as a 74-73 win for St. John’s, but it will also be in the annals as a win for the Big East, a kickoff to the tournament’s 35th rendition at the Garden that quickly turned from quiet to uproar.
“Just an old-school type of game,” Mullin said.
“Tempers flared a little bit,” Thompson III said.
Mullin was asked what he had to say to Patrick Ewing Jr., the Georgetown assistant who was issued a technical foul for his part, during the handshake line.
“Asked if he was going to beat me up like his father did,” said Mullin, who played against Ewing Sr. in the conference’s halcyon days of the 1980s. “He said, ‘No, I love you.’ So I said, ‘OK.’ He was on the (Dream Team) trip with us in Barcelona when he was a little baby. It was nothing more than competitive juices. Nothing more than that.”
Mullin took the press conference by knockout. Thompson III is on too hot a seat back in the nation’s capital to be going for the right-hook quip. His season is done now. The Hoyas finished 14-18 overall and 5-13 in conference. St. John’s swiped the rivalry’s 108th rendition and readied to square off with heavyweight Villanova in a noon quarterfinal Thursday. Mullin implored his charges to rest up, aware of the leg strength they will need to take down the defending champs.
“I tell them all the time: get your rest and come out and play,” Mullin said.
Shamorie Ponds is the southpaw Mullin has been training in his Jamaica gym. He dances around at times, but drops 3-pointers more often. Georgetown knew the combinations Ponds was capable of, but still Ponds proved the difference, soaring in for a putback dunk on the possession prior to the fracas and then following the events with a three. He has rejuvenated the Red Storm’s rebuilding. For the season, he has more points (564 points) than any previous rookie Johnnie. He was named to the conference’s All-Freshman team alongside backcourt mate Marcus LoVett, and shows what the Fighting Mullins are developing. Ponds fed off the fightnight atmosphere.
“It was a lot of emotions,” Ponds said. “I love games like that. When the crowd is going and both teams are playing physical, I just live for moments like that.” Georgetown expressed respect. “It’s just a blessing,” Hoyas guard Rodney Pryor said. “It’s what I signed up for, I knew the Big East would be like this.”
Both benches emptied with over eight minutes left in the second half. Referees restored order, but not before Mullin was assessed a technical. Ewing Jr., son of the Georgetown and Knicks legend, was given one too. Alibegovic was hit with a Flagrant 1 technical for his two-handed foul across Peak’s shoulders. It all unspooled with Thompson Jr. sitting courtside, his image a reminder of when he used to battle Lou Carnesecca. Those days were about sweaters and players take swings at each other. Wednesday night never reached that point, though one Hoya partisan shouted, “The Big East is back!” Cheers, shouts, whistles and hollers from all hues made the rafters ring like few other hoop bouts in recent Garden memory.
St. John’s guard Malik Ellison noted that Mullin makes sure his charges are well versed in the history between the two schools.
“We really fought for him,” Ellison said.
Mullin likes to say that it took him two decades to put the old rivalry behind him. He watched the next generation start the physical play Wednesday and then respond when one of their own was getting shoved a few rows into the crowd. Mullin liked the mindset. It was an authentic tussle, one where the old coach looked like he might slip on one of the No. 20 St. John’s jerseys dotting the crowds.
“In ’85, there was more to it,” he said. “Not in the year 2000.”
XAVIER 75, DEPAUL 64: Trevon Bluiett had 17 points and nine rebounds for the seventh-seeded Musketeers (20-12) in the nightcap. Xavier will face No. 2 Butler in tonight’s quarterfinals.