Austin, Texas — dylan darling Hadn’t made a single shot all day when he got the ball at midcourt st johns 3.9 seconds left in Ty March Madness thriller.
Darling could pass. He could wither. He could have missed once again.
Instead, the Red Storm’s tenacious point guard ran the game he had called for himself some time ago – attacking the basket, banking in a perfectly weighted shot and sending himself into St. John’s lore.
He sent the Johnnies back to the Sweet 16 after a long absence of 27 years.
Darling hit a driving layup for his only bucket of the game, and St. John’s advanced to the second weekend of the men’s NCAA tournament for the first time since 1999. 67-65 victory over kansas On Sunday.
“I probably don’t deserve it,” said Darling, who missed his first four shots so badly that frustrated coach Rick Pitino told him to stop shooting the ball. “I was in pretty bad shape all night. But my guys stuck with it tonight. Everyone stepped up. It’s great to keep this thing going.”
St. John’s advanced to face No. 1 overall seed Duke in the East Region semifinals in Washington.
Darling’s toughness and resiliency have immediately impressed his teammates in his first year at Queens after previous stops at Washington State and Idaho State. He also got the nickname “Big Bells” from Pitino in January because he thought Darling – let’s call it cruelty – was as big as church bells.
After the Jayhawks (24-11) erased a 58-45 deficit in seven-and-a-half minutes of play, they went on a 20-7 offensive run to seal the victory for St. John’s. darrin peterson It’s tied with two free throws with 13.1 seconds left.
The Jayhawks had four fouls to give and they used all four of them to run the clock down to 3.9 seconds.
“Belles comes to me and says, run ‘power,’ which is a high, back-screen pick-and-roll,” Pitino said. “So I walked over, and I said, ‘Wait a second. He hasn’t scored a bucket, and he wants to run a play for himself?’ But that’s Bells. And not only did he do this, but he went with his right hand. I’m really proud of him, because it’s unbelievable to want the ball when you haven’t made a shot.”
In fact, the left-handed shooter scored with his own hand before being tackled by his teammates in front of the St. John’s band. The celebration continued in the locker room, where the Johnnys periodically shouted, “Dylan, I love you!” While he spoke to the journalists with a shy smile.
“I had full confidence in him that he would make a great decision and he obviously made the best decision,” the reigning Big East Player of the Year said. zubi ejioforWho had 18 points and nine rebounds. “We know who Dylan is. He’s a really confident player, a high-level competitor, and he’s capable of achieving big things.”
Bryce Hopkins He also scored 18 points for the fifth-seeded Red Storm (30-6), who have returned to college basketball prominence in just three seasons under Pitino.
Pitino, 73, and Bill Self, 63, coached against each other for only the second time in the Hall of Famers’ decades-long careers, having first met in March Madness. They are two of three active coaches with multiple national titles — and now Pitino still has a chance to claim his third.
Led by Kansas transfer Ejiofor, St. John’s has won 21 of its last 22 games since the beginning of January, capped by this weekend’s second and third NCAA Tournament wins this past quarter.
St. John’s won Big East regular season and tournament titles during its surge, and the Red Storm hasn’t slowed down in the slightest.
Meanwhile, the fourth-seeded Jayhawks again failed to reach the Sweet 16 – a feat the program has not accomplished since Self’s second national title in 2022. After Kansas ended Arizona’s undefeated season in a historic win on February 9, the Jayhawks subsequently lost six of their last 11 games.
“The tournament, one of the things that makes it so great is that it can be great, but it can also be brutal,” Self said. “We obviously put ourselves in a position to play from behind the whole game, and then really compete and play great until the end. We just couldn’t finish what we started.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
