SAN DIEGO (AP) — Dylan Darling hadn't made a shot all day when he got the ball at midcourt for St. John's with 3.9 seconds left in a tied March Madness thriller.
Darling could have passed. He could have wilted. He could have missed yet again.
Instead, the Red Storm's tenacious point guard ran the play he had called for himself moments earlier — attacking the basket, banking in a perfectly weighted shot and sending himself headlong into St. John's lore.
He also sent the Johnnies back to the Sweet 16 after 27 long years away.
Darling hit a driving layup for his only bucket of the game, and St. John’s advanced to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1999 with a 67-65 victory over Kansas in on Sunday.
“I probably don’t deserve this,” said Darling, who had missed his first four shots badly enough that an exasperated Rick Pitino implored him to stop aiming the ball. “I was pretty bad all night long. But my teammates held it down tonight. Everybody stepped up. Just happy to keep this thing rolling.”
St. John’s advanced to face No. 1 overall seed Duke in the East Region semifinals in Washington.
Darling's toughness and resilience have immediately impressed his teammates in his first year in Queens after previous stops at Washington State and Idaho State. He even earned the nickname “Big Bells” from Pitino in January because he thought Darling's — let's call it toughness — is as big as church bells.
That's how he coolly won it for St. John's after the Jayhawks (24-11) erased a 58-45 deficit with 7 1/2 minutes to play, making a furious 20-7 run capped by Darryn Peterson's two free throws to tie it with 13.1 seconds left.
The Jayhawks had four fouls to give, and they used all four to wind the clock down to 3.9 seconds.
“Bells come up to me and says, run ‘Power,’ which is a high, back-screen pick-and-roll,” Pitino said. “So I walk away, and I said, ‘Wait a second. He hasn’t scored a bucket, and he wants to run a play for himself?’ But he’s Bells. And not only did he do it, he went with his right hand. I’m real proud of him, because to want the ball when you haven’t made a shot is unbelievable.”
Indeed, the left-handed shooter scored with his off hand before his teammates tackled him in front of the St. John's band. The celebration continued in the locker room, where the Johnnies periodically shouted, “Dylan, I love you!” while he spoke to reporters with a sheepish grin.
“I was fully confident in him making a play, a great decision, and he obviously made the best decision possible,” said Big East player of the year Zuby Ejiofor, who had 18 points and nine rebounds. “We know who Dylan is. He's a really confident player, a high-level competitor, and he was able to make a big-time bucket.”
Bryce Hopkins also scored 18 points for the fifth-seeded Red Storm (30-6), who have roared back to college basketball prominence in just three seasons under Pitino.
The 73-year-old Pitino and 63-year-old Bill Self coached against each other for only the second time in the Hall of Famers’ decades-long careers, meeting for the first time in March Madness. They’re two of the three active coaches with multiple national titles — and now Pitino still has a chance to claim his third.
With Kansas transfer Ejiofor leading the way, St. John’s has won 21 of its last 22 games since early January, capped by the Johnnies’ second and third NCAA Tournament victories in the past quarter-century this weekend.
St. John’s won the Big East regular-season and tournament titles during its surge, and the Red Storm haven’t eased up a bit.
Jayhawks heartbreak
Peterson scored 21 points and Melvin Council Jr. had 15 points and nine rebounds for the fourth-seeded Jayhawks, who still haven’t returned to the Sweet 16 since they claimed Self’s second national title in 2022.
After Kansas ended Arizona’s unbeaten season in a landmark victory on Feb. 9, the Jayhawks subsequently lost six of their final 11 games.
“The tournament, one of the things that makes it so great is that it can be great, but it can also be cruel,” Self said. “We obviously put ourselves in a position to play from behind the whole game, and then really competed and played great down the stretch. Just didn’t finish what we had started down the stretch.”
Up next
“I’m hoping we can get Duke at the buzzer next, to make up for that Christian Laettner shot." — Pitino, whose Kentucky Wildcats lost one of the most memorable games in Elite Eight history in 1992 on Laettner's game-winning jumper.