It’s worse than anyone could imagine, worse than the players and coach ever foresaw, worse than the most pessimistic fan dared to consider.
St. John’s is in a freefall, and no one knows how to stop it.
After a stunningly bad, wire-to-wire, 84-72 loss at Rutgers last night, one can make an argument this team is playing the worst ball in the Big East. It’s that bad.
“I have no idea,” forward Justin Burrell said, asked if this team was in disbelief after losing its fourth straight to fall to 12-9 overall, 2-7 in the Big East.
“I wish I could find a better word than disbelief,” he added. “Flabbergasted? This is the worst loss in my sports career. I’ve played football, soccer and basketball but none of them hurts more.”
Coach Norm Roberts said he would consider changes in the starting lineup and rotation but he’s not sure that will be the answer. The players, particularly forward Sean Evans, have become surly.
This is what happens when you surrender 84 points, the most this season, to a team that was averaging 67 and hadn’t won a league game until Saturday. This is what happens when you have three of the best practices of the season but then fall behind 18-9, 36-21 and 40-29 at halftime.
St. John’s closed to within 60-54 with just over seven minutes remaining but never got closer. Rutgers (11-11, 2-8), with a career-high 33 points from Mike Rosario and 19 points, nine boards and a Rutgers-record nine blocks from Hamady Ndiaye, just pulled away.
“Our record should be the other way around,” said forward D.J. Kennedy, who had a career-high 27 points for St. John’s.
It’s almost impossible to remember that this St. John’s team was 10-2 at one point with the only losses to now nationally-ranked Duke and Cornell. After an 81-71 loss to Villanova in the Garden on Jan. 23, St. John’s athletic director Chris Monasch said he would evaluate the program at the end of the season.
Roberts is now 76-94 in his sixth season. The core of this team is comprised of juniors. The days of falling back on inexperience or lack of depth is quickly fading. This team either doesn’t have enough talent or isn’t getting the coach’s message — or worse, both.
“We’re just not making plays,” said Roberts. “We’ve got to fight through it. When you have opportunities and you don’t make the best of them, it’s going to catch up to you. It’s caught up to us a little bit.”
It sure has.