Joel Soriano, St. John's motivated by 'once-in-a-lifetime' feeling of playing in NCAA Tournament
St. John's Joel Soriano dunks during a game against Butler at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on Feb. 28. Credit: Gary Brockman-For Newsday
Daniss Jenkins and Joel Soriano sat at a table in St. John’s Taffner Fieldhouse on Thursday afternoon before practice, taking questions two days before the Red Storm would face Georgetown at the Garden in their regular-season finale.
The duo covered a lot of ground: Soriano’s time at the school before his final home game, their play during the four-game winning streak, the rivalry with the Hoyas and, yes, the impact of coach Rick Pitino’s much-discussed news conference in which he criticized his players after the Feb. 18 loss to Seton Hall.
The most interesting moment came while watching Soriano listen to Jenkins discuss what he loved about being a part of Pitino’s Iona team that went to the 2023 NCAA Tournament. Jenkins described everything from the team’s police escort to the game-time atmosphere to the magnitude of playing on the NCAA Tournament stage. In totality, he called it “amazing.”
And, with an occasional nod, one could see Soriano considering the possibility.
And that’s exactly what it will be all about for St. John’s (18-12, 10-9 Big East) when it meets 10th-place Georgetown (9-21, 2-17) on Saturday.
“It sounds like a once-in-a-lifetime feeling . . . for me it would be a dream come true,” Soriano said. “This would be my first time and it would be a dream come true in my last season to make it to the Tournament.
“Hopefully making some noise when you get in there. I’m just eager to get there.”
Barring Providence upsetting second-ranked UConn on Saturday, a St. John’s victory over Georgetown likely would mean a fifth-place finish and a bye into the Big East Tournament quarterfinals. After Tuesday’s win at DePaul, Pitino said, “We have to win that game.” And, for the Red Storm to return to The Big Dance for the first time since 2019, that’s probably true.
There are some who believe the Red Storm would punch their ticket by beating the Hoyas. Given the many variables — better finishes by other bubble teams and bid-stealers — St. John’s might need even one more win. A loss to their ancient rival would be a killer and probably would require them to win three or four games in as many days in the conference tournament.
St. John’s pulled out a five-point win on Feb. 21 at Georgetown to start its winning streak. Pitino said specifically of the past trio of contests: “It’s been three great games.” And the Red Storm are playing the best they have, averaging 88.7 points.
“Offensively, we’ve grown in a big way,” Pitino added.
So about Pitino’s words after that last loss? The sense here is the Red Storm already had heard it and that this surge was more a product of desperation.
“The six seniors on the team, we knew that we had to change this or it’s going to be over. If we don’t win the Big East Tournament, we’re not going to go to the [NCAA] Tournament,” Soriano said. “So we had to do something drastically to change the direction of our team. . . . His words had a [part] in it. That was just him trying to drive us to be great.”
“Coach P had been saying that the whole year,” Jenkins said. “It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, my God — he just said that.’ ”
Pitino’s words before the next practice, however, may have done more.
“I told them . . . ‘You guys came here to try and play in the NCAAs, [and] if you continue to play the way you’re playing, you have no chance to play in the NCAAs,’ ” he said. “So did they take that as a challenge? I’m sure they did because they want to play in the NCAAs.”
If the past two weeks inform anything, their “want” is going to show up on Saturday at the Garden.
After all, they’re playing to get that once-in-a-lifetime feeling.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.