Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
It’s been a good long while since St. John’s has embraced this fully the elements of being the city’s basketball team. Think of it: They are a ferocious defensive team, one that gets after you from opening jump to final buzzer.
They are relentless: No deficit seems too great, and they have lost their three games this year by a total of five points, two of them thanks to the assistance of a no-call at the buzzer and deplorable clock management at the scorer’s table. You want to beat them, you’d better play the full 40.
There’s this, too. Al McGuire, SJU ’51, once said this about New York City guards, of which he was a proud fraternity brother: “If a guy isn’t afraid to shoot a ball in the wind on the playground by the beach, he’s not going to flinch if you ask him to take the last shot of the game indoors in a gym.”
And let’s face it: When you watch these Johnnies shoot, especially from long range, it sometimes feels like they’ve somehow imported the winds that used to capture the McGuire brothers’ set shots back at their old playground at 108th Street in Rockaway Beach.