“Same ol’ St. John’s” - On a Bahamas Trip Gone Wrong, Generational Sports Trauma, and Common Sense

The flight down flew by—figuratively, but thankfully literally as well—the anticipation of the biggest non-conference game in my 15 years vs. a Baylor squad that many think can make a lot of noise come March. Coming off a dominant performance against a top-60 KenPom team, and likely tournament team, New Mexico on Sunday, the world felt full of possibilities.

A lighthouse. IYKYK.

And the good omens were everywhere. On the way down, my wife and I had a whole row—the full 6 seats—to ourselves on the emptiest flight I’ve seen in maybe a decade. That was Monday. Upon checking into our hotel (not Baha Mar), we posted up on the beach, where I saw another good omen, in the form of an inside joke with some of my #SJUBB Twitter crew: a lighthouse perched on the island across the harbor from my hotel. On Thursday, we (Mrs. FiG and I) hung by the pools at Baha Mar with friends. As we were leaving the pool, another good omen, I stumbled across an elderly British man sporting the crest of Sheffield Wednesday—a team a few of my #SJUBB friends have adopted as our own, given we all had pre-existing allegiances to EPL teams.

This delightful old British man and I bonded over our love of the Owls #COYO.

The vibes were immaculate as the kids say…until the weren’t.

Started with the official St. John’s pre-game at the Swimming Pig. The vibes were great, but soured by atrocious service. The omens had started turning. It was as if the restaurant/bar was totally unaware that a few hundred SJU fans would be disrupting their Thursday dinner time. It took 45 minutes to get a drink, which we took to go to get good seats in the largely GA “arena”. Arrived to the convention hall a couple minutes before 6 only to find the line to get in was already a mile long. More bad omens.

Once inside, we grabbed the best seats we could (2 rows behind the SJU bench but behind the baseline). Not the best view, but so close to the bench it made up for it. But the bad omens continued, went to the bar only to discover one of the stupidest setups in the history of sports (and I say this as someone who frequents Carnesecca Arena)—rather than have 5 bartenders, the convention hall had 3 cashiers from whom you had to purchase drink tickets, and then 2 bartenders who would turn those tickets into drinks. A piss poor setup if I ever saw, but we powered through and got our drinks.

The view from Thursday’s seats in the corner.

Bad omens be damned, with drinks in hand we settled in for what we expected to be a battle. Instead we got 2 20-minute blow-outs, followed by 10 minutes of back-and-forth battling.

Somehow, the vibes got even higher before they came crashing down. St. John’s racing out to a 7-0 lead, and extending it to an 18-point lead when RJ Luis hit a 3 with 4:07 to go in the half, 42-24. Baylor went on a mini 6-2 run to close the half, but the Red Storm fans were BUZZING at halftime. Riding high on the back of a dominant half.

Baylor came out ready at the half, with a 10-5 run to start it off, and continued to slowly chip away at the lead. SJU had some responses, particular with around the 4 minute mark, when Kadary Richmond, playing one of his best games of the season to date, found Aaron Scott who converted a 3-pointer and 1 for the 4 point play, giving SJU a 6-point, 72-66 lead. ESPN had our win probability at 86.2% following that play.

Less than a minute later, Baylor took the lead, and after a Johnnies answer, Baylor took a 3-point lead on a Jeremy Roach 3-pointer. Certainly an omen of what was to come.

The next sequence was chaotic. Jayden Nunn stole the ball from Zuby, and then missed a jumper at the end of the shot clock on the other end. Kadary came down with the rebound, got it out to RJ, who was ultimately fouled. RJ only hit the front end of 2 FTs, Baylor missed a shot down the other end, and Zuby got the rebound only to promptly turn it over on a steal by Johnnies legend Norchad Omier with 0:21 on the clock. As a side note, Omier knocked Zuby to the ground, I have no clue how that wasn’t a foul. 

Simeon fouled Roach with 0:17 on the clock and a 2-point deficit. Surely the sure-handed Roach, a 78% FT shooter in his career, who played in plenty of huge games across 4 years at Duke, would not miss a FT. At the very least, he’d hit the front-end of the 1&1…

…and in what felt at the time like a sign that God is in fact Catholic, and not Baptist, Roach missed the front-end, and Zuby came down with the board, and dumped it to Kadary, who was never letting anyone else take the shot. He went coast to coast, got to the tin for 2 to tie the game, and a VJ Edgecombe corner-3 clanked off the far side rim, meaning we were heading to OT.

First OT was a seesaw affair, Baylor jumping out to a 4-point lead only for SJU to claw it back, only for Baylor to jump to a 5-point lead, only for SJU to claw it back with a sequence at the end that included a double dribble by Robert Wright, III in the face of a pretty ferocious SJU press. On the ensuing possession Kadary once again tried to get to the tin, being the aggressive alpha scorer SJU needs him to be, and was fouled on the floor heading in. Kadary hit both FTs, Roach missed a jumper on the final possession and to double overtime we went.

Double OT was the inverse of the first OT. The Johnnies held 4 & 5-point leads at points. The 5-point lead coming with 2:21 left after a Wilcher 3, assisted by Smith. The next 2 minutes saw just a Baylor FT go on the board, giving the Johnnies a 4-point lead when Smith grabbed a defensive board and was fouled. Smith went to the line with 0:18 on the clock, 2 shots, and a 4-point lead. He converted 1 of 2. After a Baylor timeout, Edgecombe hit a miraculous, well guarded 3 point jumper to make it a 2 point game. After a TO for each team, SJU set its inbound play and got the ball to Zuby, who Baylor promptly fouled, with 4.1 seconds on the clock.

Coming into the game Zuby was 62.5% on the year, and was only 6/10 on the game. Surely though, he was capable of hitting one to at least keep the worst case scenario as a third overtime, instead of the potential for an L. Scott Drew asked for a bullshit review that the officials inexplicably allowed, icing Zuby in the process, VJ furthered this by taking court drying into his own hands and wiping down the lane. Well you all know what happened next.

There is no rest for the weary in an MTE, so the Johnnies had to come back the next day and take care of business versus UVA, and they did so, handedly, as one would expect against a team whose coach quit on them 2 weeks before the season. Of particular note, the fans in attendance let Zuby know we were there and that we had his back. It may have been the first time Zuby had smiled in over 20 hours. I love our fanbase.

Of course, tired as they were from the game with us, and as good as Tennessee is, Baylor got beaten easily Friday, 77-62, damaging us further by making the Baylor loss look worse.

No one had circled the Baylor game as a W when making there preseason projections, so we were basically right on track. Beat Georgia Sunday, a game the Johnnies were favored by 7.5 at open, 5.5 by tip according to ESPN. Unfortunately, nothing went right. Everyone struggled other than Zuby and RJ. Kadary was a no-factor shooting 1-8 from the field, for just 3 points, 4 boards, and 2 assists. Smith was 1-7, 5 boards, 2 assists, and 1 TO that saw him get yanked and spend the rest of the game on the bench (maybe by choice? more below). No sense in going any deeper than that. Nothing went right. We had 15 turnovers. Shot 31.1% from the field, 10.5% from 3, the lone bright spot was 82.1% from the stripe, buoyed by Zuby’s 12-13 performance.

The trip is a disappointment any way you slice. I don’t care how good the opponent is, you cannot blow 18 point leads. You have to find ways to grab boards, make your FTs, and close games. There were too many late TOs and sloppy play to close against a high-quality team like Baylor. 2-1 would have kept SJU in the top-25 most likely. Instead, we’ve fallen out. The buzz of consecutive ranked-weeks falling by the wayside.

Generational Sports Trauma

I’m a firm believer that generational sports trauma is a real thing. And obviously trauma is too strong a word, and I don’t mean to diminish the suffering of folks who have suffered actual real life trauma, by comparing the frivolity of a game to their suffering. I just can’t find a better word.

What is generational sports trauma (let’s call it “GST” for ease)? To me, it’s the irrational fear, anxiety, sensation, whatever you want to call it that is held from all the seasons that have come before. For example, if you think Bills’ fans assholes don’t clench a little bit every time their kicker lines up for a game-winning field goal, you’re kidding yourself. As a Giant fan, I definitely never feel safe with a lead on the Eagles at home knowing that the original Miracle at the Meadowlands (which occurred 7 years before my birth) and the New Miracle at the Meadowlands (2010 DeSean Jackson punt return capping a 28-point 4th quarter from Philly) have occurred.

For St. John’s fans, the generational trauma goes back so very far. The venerable SJU Camel Guy on Twitter keeps a running tally of all of the bad luck and poor decisions dating all the way back to things like the school forcing Lapchick into retirement due to the university’s mandatory retirement age, costing us a little recruit you may have heard of: Lew Alcindor (not a joke or exaggeration, even after Lapchick was hired, SJU remained a 6-to-5 favorite for Alcindor). Through the 80’s, which gave us the apocryphal story of Louie and SJU leaving a recruit from Nigeria named Hakeem Olajuwon at the airport on a snowy NYC day. As the legend goes, Olajuwon had 2 other tickets, one to Houston. He asked a Nigerian baggage handler which climate would be closest to Nigeria, and the rest is history. There was Fran Fraschilla in the late 90’s, the last great coach SJU had, done in by his own dick (literally) and his flirtation with Arizona State. If you believe in curses, the curse of Fraschilla’s Willie may be the closest thing we have to a curse on SJUBB.

That brought us Jarvis, who passed on Darius Miles and Carmelo Anthony, and apparently rubbed Jason Fraser the wrong way during his visit. Jarvis was fired mid-season, leading to the Pittsburgh Incident, and the consequences thereof (thanks Abe Keita!). Calipari wanted the SJU job, apparently, and rumor has it Louie shut that down due to 15-year-old recruiting grudges. Instead we got Norm Roberts, whose name alone should be enough. There was the Marcus LoVett phantom knee injury. Mullin failing to recruit RJ Barrett, who grew up an SJU fan thanks to his father, who played basketball at SJU and his mother who ran track for the school.  And who could forget the string of criminals: a serial killer walk-on, Rysheed Jordan and his attempted robbery charge, and 7’0” 5* commit Zach Brown, who never made it to campus.

In 2019, the last year SJU was in the tournament, we unceremoniously,—but rightfully—showed Chris Mullin the door. Rather than hire Rick Pitino, then on the sidelines in Greece, but still maintaining his residence and membership at nearby Winged Foot, the Johnnies put on an absolute debacle of a search. He wound up at Iona in 2020. They didn’t even look at local option and alumnus Tim Cluess, who would have ran through shit for a chance at the SJU job. Bobby Hurley leveraged us for a raise/extension at ASU. Porter fucking Moser leveraged us for a raise/extension at Loyola. And Ryan Odom, fresh off a hot run with UMBC wouldn’t even meet with SJU. We inexplicably landed on Mike Anderson based on the word of ::checks notes:: Felton Jeffrey Capel the third?! What the fuck were we thinking?!

Even the limited “good” times held their own traumas: DJ Kennedy going down with a knee injury, leaving us with essentially 5 guys for the tournament. In 2015 Chris Obekpa gets drug tested, pops for weed, and gets suspended for the NCAA Tournament, leaving a thin team even thinner, and lacking any real presence in the frontcourt.

Needless to say, we’ve been through a lot. Long-suffering for sure. As an animal lover, I always liken it to a beaten dog. If a dog has been abused, even when it finds itself in new, friendlier environs, it might cower every time someone yells (at the dog or otherwise) or moves or raises their hand in a manner that reminds the rescued dog of the dark days of its prior life.

Common Sense

Of course, when considering the beaten dog, we can all understand that the dog’s reaction is not logical. Instinct? Maybe. A pavlovian response? Most definitely. But there’s no logic there.

When it comes to our sports teams, we have trouble separating emotion from logic. I’m guilty of it, particularly with St. John’s. I think it’s more acute with college teams because the connection frequently runs deeper than mere fandom. When it’s not my team, I find it hilarious. If I had a nickel every time I said “Jets/Mets will always Jets/Mets” I’d be a billionaire. However, in the long term: the 50+ years of (mostly) Jets futility, the 40+ years of (mostly) Mets futility and lifetimes of SJU (mostly) futility, there is no  evidence that there is some supernatural force keeping bad teams bad, and good teams good.

Sure, if you have an owner for the long-term (hello Wilpons and James Dolan!) they can drag the franchise down. But that is an identifiable issue, and only affects the pros. And teams like the Jets and Mets have undergone ownership changes, similarly negating such an explanation, to say nothing of the number of front-offices those teams have churned through during the time since their last championship. However, the human brain will always hunt for the easiest explanations, and so the fan-brain draws a straight line from Bucky fucking Dent through Bill Buckner through Aaron fucking Boone, and blames the curse of the Bambino. From the butt fumble to Aaron Rodgers injury, “the Jets can’t have nice things.”

At St. John’s we’ve had multiple different administrations over these years of misery. That is not the explanation. And so we’re left with the illogic of it all, the chaos of it all. As I’ve also said many times: it’s unfathomable how one program, across so many different decision makers, could make so many bad decisions the last 25 years. If you were trying to tank a program, you couldn’t have done as good a job as the various presidents, ADs and other administrators at SJU over the last 25 years.

But the logic brain dictates “that was then, this is now.” This is not Bobby G, Anton Goff and Lavin/Mullin. This is not Chris Mullin. This is father Shanley, a man known for centering basketball to boost the profile of a private catholic school in the Big East. This is Ed Kull, an incredibly smart and capable AD with deep ties to the school and a desire to win. This is Mike Repole back in the fold, and using his immense resources to help fund the most talented team in at least a decade, probably two and a half.

I’ve even seen comparisons between this year’s team and last year’s team, so let’s dissect those using my favorite metric, Torvik:

T-Ranks at 7 Games:
2024: 59
2025: 11 (15 if you remove preseason projections)

AdjDE
2024: 101.7
2025: 93.0 (removing preseason projections)

AdjOE
2024: 115.1
2025: 117.1 (removing preseason projections)

Best Win
2024: T-Rank #43 Utah (43 at the time, finished 40) with 0 quality OOC opponents ahead of us on the schedule)
2025: T-Rank #46 UNM (sporting an upset of #20 UCLA)

Losses
2024: #46 at the time Michigan (finished 118); #65 at the time Dayton (finished 47)
2025: #21 Baylor in double OT by 1; #43 Georgia by 3

Focus on the efficiency. The more efficient you are, the more likely you are to win games. Right now this team is 8 points better defensively than last year’s squad, and 2 points better than last year’s squad offensively, but also turning a corner. We posted our 3 best offensive efficiency numbers on Torvik against our last 3 opponents before laying a shooting egg vs. Georgia, including a 130.7 ADJOE vs. UNM and 135.3 ADJOE vs. UVa, and a 118.6 vs. Baylor. In purely raw efficiency numbers, we were only 1.5 points less efficient on offense against UNM than Fordham (a 92-60 blowout), i.e. we improved greatly to play at the same offensive level versus #46 UNM as we did against #156 Fordham.

We also still have 1 opportunity left against K-State at home, before the ample opportunities that will be presented in conference play. KState has not been great, but I expect them to improve and be a tournament team. They are loaded with talent and will figure it out, just hopefully not before 12/7. Further, while much is being made about the Big East’s struggles—and no doubt, those struggles are real—the conference will not have 2 atrocious teams weighing the league down this year. Georgetown may actually be just as bad, but we won’t have a 2024 DePaul situation this year (297th).

Of course the other point here is that this team is not static, we saw how greatly the team improved over the course of last season, when we finished 15th in Torvik. There is obviously less room to improve this year, but rounding up one, we went from 60th after 7 games to 15th, a 75% gain. A 75% gain again would have us in the top-5. While that’s probably too much to ask, the point remains: this team will continue to improve, and will play its best basketball in March.

Finally, look at the games we lost this year:

Baylor - preseason T7 in championship odds. A legit Final Four contender headed by a national championship winning coach. A game we lost by 1 point in double OT.

Georgia - A likely tournament team, in a game we shot 31.1/10.5…yes, not a typo, 10.5 from deep. If you merely shoot 3/19 (15.7%) from deep and 20/61 (32.7%) from 2, still well below our season averages of 48.3% and 35.7% (averages that are dragged down by this abysmal performance) and we win the game. Some of it was no doubt Georgia’s defense, but we had plenty of make-able shots we missed.

In other words, if you let your logic brain win out, there is no reason to panic. It took an atrocious shooting performance from us for Georgia to even beat us by 1 point. It is disappointing, and at the end of the day you need results, but this is far, far, far from the same ol’ Johnnies.

And even if you are one to believe in the supernatural. That there’s some energy/bad vibe/curse hanging over this program, preventing even the legendary Rick Pitino from saving us, shouldn’t you also believe that there’s supernatural power in positive thinking? In a fan base that looks, and talks, and acts like it’s got a dominant team, and will persevere despite the setbacks?

I know I do.