St. John’s had lost three in a row to close the month of February. The Red Storm were trending towards another disappointing end to a season.
Coach Mike Anderson flipped the script.
Halfway through conference play, Mustapha Heron had been lost for the season with an ankle injury, meaning Anderson had just one of the team’s top five scorers from the previous year’s NCAA Tournament team to work with, it could have been easy to lie down and turn the page to 2020-21. Instead, the Johnnies started a surge, upsetting No. 10 Creighton at Carnesecca Arena 91-71.