St. John’s guard Dylan Darling missed his first four shots in Sunday’s Round of 32 matchup against Kansas, but that didn’t stop him from asking coach Rick Pitino to give him the final shot of the game in the Red Storm’s eventual win.
After Darling made a runner at the buzzer to seal a win for St. John’s, Pitino shared that the junior asked to take the final shot during the final timeout in what the Hall of Fame coach called “the funniest thing I’ve been involved with.”
“Bells (Darling) comes up to me and says, run ‘Power,’ which is a high, back-screen pick-and-roll,” Pitino told reporters. “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.”
Darling’s runner led to the only two points he scored all night. However, they proved to be the difference in St. John’s 67-65 win, which will send it to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999.
While Darling had such an off night that Pitino had told him to stop aiming the ball when he shot, St. John’s head coach expressed that the confidence he showed during the timeout allowed him to have faith in his junior guard.
“He’s extremely fast,” Pitino said. “They would probably look at him to go left. He went right. It was the only play we could run, or we could try to throw it into the high post area and let Zuby [Ejiofor] go.
“However as quickly as Bell stated to me to run energy, I knew he may get to the rim as a result of he hadn’t accomplished a rattling good factor the entire night time. So, I knew he was going to do it.”
The camaraderie between Pitino and Darling was on show throughout their postgame press convention. When Darling was requested if Sunday’s shot was his first buzzer-beater, he replied that it was his first in school.
Pitino jumped in and teased Darling, asking him if he had made a buzzer-beater within the NBA earlier than.
“I am saying I performed in highschool and center college, coach,” Darling stated with fun. “I did not simply begin taking part in ball.”
Nonetheless, Darling was a bit shocked that Pitino trusted him to make such an enormous play.
“I in all probability don’t deserve this,” Darling stated. “I used to be fairly unhealthy all night time lengthy. However my teammates held it down tonight. All people stepped up. Simply comfortable to maintain this factor rolling.”
However Darling’s teammates had religion in him as nicely, together with Ejiofor, who scored 18 factors within the win.
“I used to be absolutely assured in him making a play, an ideal determination, and he clearly made the very best determination potential,” Ejiofor stated. “We all know who Dylan is. He’s a very assured participant, a high-level competitor, and he was capable of make a big-time bucket.”
Now, Pitino, Darling and St. John’s will tackle the match’s No. 1 total seed, Duke, within the Candy 16 on Friday. Pitino has had a number of memorable matchups towards Duke in his legendary profession, together with one of the vital iconic video games within the historical past of school basketball when the Blue Devils beat his Kentucky squad within the Elite Eight in 1992.
Pitino is hoping that Darling’s shot could possibly be a superb omen for St. John’s on Friday.
“I’m hoping we are able to get Duke on the buzzer subsequent, to make up for that Christian Laettner shot,” Pitino stated.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
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