Sports

St. John’s leaves lasting Big East memories

If the basketball gods had any sense of history, they would have shown more compassion for St. John’s last night. They would have appreciated the legacy of this tournament and how the Redmen and now the Red Storm helped make it become the national spectacle it has become and why so many are sad this week to see it all end.

Yes, St. John’s may have completed what coach Steve Lavin called “the most challenging season” of his career. A 66-53 loss to seventh-seeded Villanova last night in their opening game of the Big East Tournament left the 10th-seeded Red Storm with a 16-15 overall record after going 8-10 during the Big East regular season. They lost seven of their past eight games.

In retrospect, it wasn’t as horrible as some predicted, considering they entered the season with the youngest team in the country and suffered when leading scorer D’Angelo Harrison was suspended for the year on March 1.

“I’m proud given the fact this young group had come of age in the toughest league in America,” Lavin said. “It was the school of hard knocks and I think that will pay off for us.”

St. John’s hopes to get a berth in the NIT. But even if the phone doesn’t ring, last night nor this season doesn’t take away from its legacy as one of the schools that laid the foundation for what the Big East and the Big East Tournament became.

It’s hard not to think of the Big East Tournament and not think of Lou Carnesecca, Chris Mullin and Walter Berry. Yes, that was a different era. But that’s when the Big East became prominent with schools like Georgetown, Villanova and Syracuse adding to its mystic.

Today, St. John’s is a long way from those glory years. It has been out-recruited and outplayed in recent years by the super powers of the conference: Connecticut, Villanova, Pitt, Cincinnati, Louisville and Syracuse.

The restructuring of the Big East might prove beneficial, aligning the Red Storm with mostly like-minded Catholic schools that aren’t pumped with dollars from a big-time football program.

Lavin, healthy and feisty again after battling prostate cancer, looks to be the man who can guide the program back to an elite level. Losing his father on Feb. 10 was a body blow to his soul that temporarily wrecked his focus. Next year, he vows to be all in.

“The future is bright,” he said more than once last night. “We’ll get better.”

Yes, the season ends without a banner or fanfare. But what the Red Storm can hold their heads high about is their Big East Tournament history. They won championships in 1983, 1986 and 2000 and reached the semifinals 11 times. The ’83 team captured the first Big East Tournament played at Madison Square Garden, a fitting birth of what is now the longest continuing venue for a conference tournament.

Mullin scored 24 points to beat Boston College that night. Two years later, he would lead St. John’s to the Final Four, joining Big East rivals Georgetown and Villanova — with the Wildcats beating Patrick Ewing’s Hoyas in the final, scoring one of the all-time great upsets.

Berry lived up to his nickname as “The Truth” in the 1986 Big East title game. It was Berry who blocked Pearl Washington’s shot at the buzzer to preserve a 70-69 victory over Syracuse. In 2000, the Red Storm reclaimed the championship trophy with an 80-70 victory over UConn behind Erick Barkley and Lavor Postell.

St. John’s hasn’t reached the semifinals since then. But as the Big East Tournament as we know it plays out this week for the last time, St. John’s can rest assured its importance to the conference has not faded over time. Now a new era begins, offering the Red Storm a chance to create new heroes and memories the way Carnesecca, Mullin and Berry did beginning 30 years ago.

george.willis@nypost.com