Mike Vaccaro From chumps to champs in 70 days — now St. John’s has real March Madness hope By Mike Vaccaro Published March 15, 2026, 9:10 p.m. ET St. John's Red Storm head coach Rick Pitino (l.), forward Zuby Ejiofor (c.) and guard Dylan Darling (r.) watch the March Madness selection show at Carnesecca Arena on March 15, 2026. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST Two Saturdays, 10 weeks apart. Seventy days apart. Basketball tales don’t always follow this closely to the Hollywood version of the script. In truth, most of them go spinning off the rails long before they reach this level of genuine satisfaction.
Just not this one. Two Saturdays, 70 days apart, St. John’s tasted both the bitter bile of broken expectation and then felt the surreal kiss of falling confetti showering them in triumph.
Underachievement, then overachievement. Both by the same team. Both in the same season, in the same calendar year. Seventy days apart.
It is why you are allowed to spend the next few days residing in the most desirable catbird seat in sports: the days before the last chapter of this Johnnies season commences. The nerves will come, don’t worry, they’ll surface in force as soon as Friday arrives, as the countdowns begin in earnest for their NCAA Tournament opener against Northern Iowa at the Viejas Center in San Diego.
