“Zu-By, Zu-By, Zu-By,” the red-clad St. John’s fans chanted as the Johnnies forward took the floor Friday.
“Zu-By, Zu-By, Zu-By,” they roared whenever the forward made a positive play.
“Zu-By, Zu-By, Zu-By,” they screamed as he checked out for the last time.
Twenty-four hours after Zuby Ejiofor’s two missed free throws in the final seconds contributed to No. 22 St. John’s heartbreaking loss to No. 13 Baylor, the Red Storm fans had his back.
“Obviously, it was a surprise to me, to my family, I felt good, and I really wanted to thank the fans of St. John’s for making me feel good and making me feel warm inside,” the junior said after St. John’s bounced back with an 80-55 rout of Virginia in the Baha Mar Hoops Championship consolation game. “There aren’t a lot of [fans] that are going to do that.
“Obviously, last night was really emotional for me. For them to chant my name and make me feel good before tip-off, I couldn’t play anywhere else.”
Ejiofor didn’t put up big numbers — eight points, nine rebounds, two blocks and two steals — but he was solid.
St. John’s outscored Virginia by 34 points in his 26 minutes.
After a slow start this year, he has come on.
The 6-foot-9 Ejiofor was terrific in Sunday’s win over New Mexico and produced 22 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks against Baylor.
But all he could think about were his two missed free throws with 4.1 seconds to go in the second overtime that enabled Jeremy Roach to beat St. John’s at the buzzer.
He broke down after the setback as the Johnnies left the floor.
“It was pretty hard,” Ejiofor said. “Obviously, I would love to have that back.”
He told himself that he had to forget about it and not let it impact the game against Virginia. Ejiofor didn’t expect so much support.
Neither did coach Rick Pitino.
“Sometimes when you’re only at a place for one year, you search for things you love about a place, and tonight, I found out what I love about St. John’s since being here,” the Hall of Fame coach said. “To chant Zuby the whole game, that doesn’t happen anywhere [else] in America. I was really, really impressed with our fans and thanked them for making Zuby feel good.”