St. John's Now A Familiar Rival

By Jim Sumner, Blue Devil Weekly

If you're an avid Duke hoops fan, you probably know that Duke ranks fourth on college basketball's all-time wins list, trailing only Kentucky, North Carolina and Kansas. The top four certainly comprise a who's who of college basketball, having combined for 55 Final Four appearances and 16 NCAA titles. In addition to the (at least) two games against North Carolina, Duke's 2005-06 schedule includes games with four other teams in the all-time top ten - St. John's, Temple, Pennsylvania and Indiana.

You might be surprised to learn that St. John's is fifth on the all-time list. St. John's has never won an NCAA title and, although it has made 27 appearances in the NCAA Tournament, it has advanced to the Final Four only twice, 1952 and 1985. But St. John's does have the rich and successful hoops history suggested by its place in the top five ? a history that involves a number of important intersections with the Duke program.

One of those intersections came in 1952, when St. John's defeated North Carolina State and Kentucky to reach its first Final Four. The University of North Carolina was looking for someone who could beat North Carolina State's Everett Case. They figured if this Frank McGuire guy could beat Case and Adolph Rupp, then he was the man for them. A few weeks later, McGuire was on his way from St. John's to Chapel Hill.

The most impressive part of St. John's basketball history may be the fact that the school is still competing at the highest level of the sport. At one time New York City was the epicenter of college basketball. The NIT was started in 1938, one year before the NCAA began its postseason tournament, and all the games were played at Madison Square Garden. St. John's has captured the NIT six times, most recently in 2003.

Before you sneer at the NIT, remember that four of the St. John's titles came at a time when no more than one team per conference could advance to the NCAA Tournament, leaving the NIT with a much stronger field than is presently the case. Programs such as Long Island University, coached by the legendary Clair Bee, City College of New York and New York University joined St. John's at the top of the college basketball mountain. CCNY even managed to capture both the NCAA and the NIT tournaments in 1950.

New York's primacy took a permanent hit with the point-shaving scandals of the early 1950s. Long Island and CCNY de-emphasized their programs. NYU held on longer, fielding nationally-ranked teams through the 1960s before dropping to Division III for financial reasons. Other schools such as Fordham and Manhattan continue to play Division I basketball but in middle-tier conferences. Only St. John's is left in a power conference.

Duke and St. John's have played 14 times. St. John's has won five, including the first three. The Red Storm twice defeated the 1978-79 Duke team that started the season ranked number one. The second win that season was an 80-78 shocker in the NCAA Tournament, in a Reynolds Coliseum doubleheader that also saw Pennsylvania defeat North Carolina, a lost weekend for the ACC that has since been dubbed Black Sunday.

St. John's took the 1999 Duke powerhouse into overtime before losing and defeated second-ranked Duke 83-82 in Cameron in 2000, a rare home loss to a nonconference foe. The Storm came from behind to edge sixth-ranked Duke in 2003, a win that propelled them to the NIT title.

But Duke has won the other nine games against St. John's, including a victories in Madison Square Garden in the 1985 Preseason NIT and in Greensboro in the December 1991 ACC-Big East Challenge. By the time Duke and St. John's met in that Greensboro game, the two programs were quite familiar with each other. In both 1990 and 1991 the two schools squared off as part of March Madness, with their seasons on the line.

Duke entered the 1990 NCAA Tournament as the third seed in the East Regional. The 15th-ranked Devils easily dispatched Richmond in the tournament opener, advancing to a second-round meeting with St. John's. Duke was led by a senior triumvirate of Phil Henderson, Robert Brickey and Alaa Abdelnaby, all of whom came up big in this game. It wasn't easy. Let by forward Malik Sealy, St. John's matched Duke basket for basket. The Devils trailed 61-53 in the middle of the second half, when they put together a crucial burst that turned around the game.

It started when Billy Singleton of St. John's grabbed a loose ball. Brickey reached in and got a steal. Singleton tried to return the favor but was called for a foul. Singleton thought that Brickey had committed a foul on the steal and argued his case so vehemently that he was called for a technical foul. Brickey made the two foul shots, then Krzyzewski motioned him to stay on the line for the technicals, a surprising decision that Brickey characterizes as the coach being "attuned to the ebb and flow of the game. He could see that I was comfortable, that I was in rhythm."

Brickey, a career 62 percent foul shooter, made both technicals. Duke retained possession on the technical and Abdelnaby scored on the inbounds pass, ending a six-point possession. The shaken St. John's team regrouped and hung tough but a Brickey tap-in locked up the 76-72 Duke win.

Abdelnaby ended the game with 17 points and seven rebounds, while Henderson added 13 points. Brickey was the undisputed star, however, with 22 points and nine rebounds, both game highs. Brickey, now the head coach at Shaw University, recalls the game "as one of my career highlights, no doubt. Being a senior in March always helps you focus. But it seemed like I had always been hurt during the NCAAs. Just being healthy gave me extra energy." Duke rode the momentum of this win all the way to the national finals, where it ran into a UNLV buzzsaw.

Brickey, Abdelnaby and Henderson all exhausted their eligibility in 1990 but were more than replaced by the addition of freshman Grant Hill and the continued development of holdovers Christian Laettner and Bobby Hurley in 1991. Duke captured the ACC regular-season title but was thrashed by North Carolina in the ACC Tournament title game.

Despite the loss, Duke began the NCAAs as a second seed in the Midwest Regional. The Devils handily defeated Louisiana-Monroe, Iowa and Connecticut to advance to the regional finals. In 1988, 1989 and 1990, Duke won regional championships by defeating the top seed in the title game. Ohio State, with Jimmy Jackson, was the top seed in the Midwest but was eliminated when St. John's pulled the upset in the third round by a convincing 91-74 score.

St. John's hoped to avenge its 1990 loss but Duke never gave the Red Storm a chance. Duke's aggressive man-to-man defense may never have been better, taking St. John's out of its game from the very beginning. Duke forced 18 first-half turnovers and jumped to a 40-26 halftime lead. Sealy made two free throws early in the second half to make the score 40-28 but the Johnnies never got closer. The biggest lead was 23 points, the final score 78-61.

After the game St. John's coach Lou Carnesecca wryly noted that Duke "took away our candy." Hurley stole the most treats. The sophomore guard went 4-of-7 on three-point shots, scored 20 points, grabbed seven rebounds, passed out four assists and came away with four steals. Laettner also had four steals to go along with 19 points. St. John's ended the game with 26 turnovers, 17 the result of Duke steals.

The win put Duke in the Final Four for the fourth consecutive season. After the game Brian Davis was asked if Duke was already worried about its pending rematch with UNLV. "We'll play them right now," he responded. "You want to play again because you have so much energy. You're jumping so high, you're so giddy, you're laughing and you're hugging. It's just incredible. I wouldn't trade it for anything. It's something you can experience that your family and friends will never know anything about. That's what makes it so special."

That may have seemed like false bravado at the time but Duke backed it up on the floor, stunning UNLV and defeating Kansas for its first national title.

St. John's is in a rebuilding mode and doesn't project as an NCAA Tournament team. But twice in this decade, an unranked St. John's team has shocked Duke, part of a long and distinguished tradition of basketball excellence. We'll see how this one plays out.

St. John's Now A Familiar Rival

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