STORM DRAINED
Ewing’s Hoyas keep Mullin, Johnnies winless in Big East
The year 1985 never felt so far away.
The poster boy of those glory days now coaches the team, and his bitter rival-turned-coaching contemporary was on the opposite sideline, but that was about the only thing Tuesday night that could remind anyone of a time when St. John’s was a premier program.
A season that began with NCAA Tournament hopes, and a sterling 10-2 non-conference mark, has quickly dissolved into what at the moment looks like a lost season, a major step back for a program that needed to show progress this year.
In their first meeting as head coaches, Patrick Ewing bested Chris Mullin, continuing the Red Storm’s downward spiral to start the Big East season. After Tuesday’s crushing 69-66 defeat at the Garden, St. John’s fell to 0-5 in the league for second time in three seasons under Mullin, and has to deal with No. 1 Villanova and 10thranked Xavier in its next two games.
“It’s not always a straight line up,” Mullin said. “You’re going to hit some peaks and valleys.” The continued absence of sec- ond-leading scorer Marcus LoVett would be considered a valley, or at least a contributing factor to one. It has loomed large, the sophomore point guard out since Nov. 26 with a sprained MCL. He has undergone two MRI exams, the second coming over the weekend, and has been listed day-to-day by the school the entire time.
LoVett, who missed his 10th straight game, may at long last get back on the practice floor Wednesday, according to Mullin.
“It definitely hurts, just because our team was built around me and Justin [Simon] being able to play [after sitting out last season as transfers], and then Shamorie [Ponds] and Marcus being two great scorers and players,” forward Marvin Clark II said. “Our team was kind of built around that notion.”
Ponds (17 points) seemed to reinjure his right knee, which cost him a game recently, in the second half Tuesday, though he did return after getting it checked out. His return was about the only good news from another dismal performance, an offensive slog full of badly missed shots and poor decisions that ruined a strong defensive showing. Getting crushed, 49-34, on the glass didn’t help either. St. John’s (10-7, 0-5 Big East) has now lost two consecutive games when it was favored, against the two teams — Georgetown (12-4, 2-3) and DePaul — predicted to finish in the Big East basement. Instead, that’s where Mullin’s undersized and depth-challenged team resides.
Afterwards, Mullin said he was neither upset nor surprised by the poor start to the league season. His mantra to his players is to focus on what they can control, and so all he’s interested in is fixing what ails his team at the moment.
“The only thing that will hinder us or keep us down is a negative mindset,” he said.
The Hoyas led by as many as eight, 57-49, with 4:34 remaining following a Jagan Mosely 3pointer. Ponds’ steal and dish for a Simon dunk pulled St. John’s even at 57 with 3:08 left. Bronx native Jessie Govan converted a three-point play, and Mosely’s slam pushed the lead back to five, but St. John’s refused to falter. Clark’s floater cut the deficit to two, and Simon created another tie with his reverse layup with 51.2 seconds left. However, Govan drilled a top-of-the-arc 3-pointer with 26.7 seconds left, which proved to be the game winner, sending St. John’s further into the abyss.
“We can’t sit and sulk and make excuses for ourselves,” Clark said. “We just got to figure out how to stop coming up short.”