"It's still not over. It's just beginning. We have won back-to-back championships with two different teams, and that's not easy to do. There's been one common denominator, and that's the young man to my left (Ejiofor). Indeed, the 6-foot-9, 245-pound senior forward is the biggest reason in sneakers that St. John's has scaled such heights the past two seasons."
"This from a program that had gone 32 years without a Big East regular-season championship. And from 2001-23, the Johnnies never even reached the tournament semifinals - with the event held on one of its home courts, no less. But all that changed with Pitino's arrival. In his third season at the school, the 73-year-old coach brings St. John's into this Big East Tournament with the top seed for the second year in a row."
"It's awesome because this didn't start in November. This started back in June, with summer workouts with these guys. And it's just super fulfilling to know the hard work's paying off with this group."
St. John's has emerged as the Big East's dominant force, winning their second consecutive outright conference championship and entering the Big East Tournament as the top seed. Senior forward Zuby Ejiofor serves as the cornerstone of this resurgence, with coach Rick Pitino crediting him as the common denominator in the program's success. The Red Storm have won 39 of their last 43 Big East games, including a 3-1 record against UConn. This represents a dramatic turnaround for a program that hadn't won a regular-season Big East title in 32 years and failed to reach tournament semifinals from 2001-23. St. John's dominated last year's Big East Tournament, winning all three rounds by at least 16 points. The team enters this tournament seeking their fifth Big East crown.
Read at NBC Connecticut
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