The clock on Norm Roberts’ St. John’s coaching career might be ticking toward midnight and yesterday the springs all but popped out on the Garden court.
And almost no one in Red and White seemed to notice.
They didn’t notice that, late in Roberts’ sixth season, a team built on hustle and defense allowed No. 12 Pittsburgh to shoot 51-percent from the field in a 71-64 Red Storm loss.
“They went everywhere they wanted,” said power forward Justin Burrell, “and did everything they wanted.”
Coming off the best five-game stretch of ball that St. John’s (15-13, 5-11 Big East) had played this season, the Red Storm seemed uninspired.
It certainly didn’t help that this performance was turned in with Dr. James Pellow, the executive vice president and chief operating officer of the university, one of just 6,892 fans in the Garden.
In order to equal its win totals from last season (16-18, 6-12), St. John’s, which is 9-42 in conference road games under Roberts, must close with a win at Syracuse or DePaul. And this was supposed to be the year the Red Storm made a move up into the second tier of the Big East.
Roberts (79-98 overall, 31-69 in the Big East) has pulled this program from the depths of public humiliation and NCAA sanctions. He has a roster comprised of very good athletes and good Big East players. When asked if he believes St. John’s is much better off than when he arrived, Roberts was firm in his response.
“Anybody who doesn’t think that is dead wrong,” Roberts told the Post. “It is. We got good players. We’ve got more talent than we’ve ever had. We have a good foundation of guys that have played Big East basketball. We just got to take it one game at a time and continue to get better.”
Sources told The Post that Roberts and athletic director Chris Monasch have not had any recent discussions about the coach’s future. Monasch has said he will evaluate the program in its entirety after the season.
But yesterday, despite Dwight Hardy’s game-high 15 points, St. John’s was not better than it was in the 63-61 overtime loss to Marquette on Wednesday. It certainly wasn’t nearly as good as earlier, in a home blowout of Louisville and a road win at Notre Dame.
Pitt (22-7, 11-5), fighting for one of the four double byes in the upcoming league tournament, used an 11-2 run to take a 21-10 lead. St. John’s closed to 42-36 with 13 minutes left when back-to-back Pitt baskets broke the Storm.
Gilbert Brown (13 points) drove down the heart of the lane and was fouled. Nasir Robinson (13 points) scored off an offensive rebound after St. John’s had forced Pitt to shoot with less than five seconds on the shot clock.
“You never expect to shoot 52 percent on the road, especially against a team like St. John’s which I think plays very good defense,” said Panthers coach Jamie Dixon. “They play a lot of guys. They have good athletes. They have good size.”
But they don’t have the wins.