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.
“But as soon as Bell said to me to run power, I knew he could get to the rim because he hadn’t done a damn good thing the whole night. So, I knew he was going to do it.”
The camaraderie between Pitino and Darling was on display during their postgame press conference. When Darling was asked if Sunday’s shot was his first buzzer-beater, he replied that it was his first in college.
Pitino jumped in and teased Darling, asking him if he had made a buzzer-beater in the NBA before.
“I’m saying I played in high school and middle school, coach,” Darling said with a laugh. “I didn’t just start playing ball.”
Still, Darling was a bit surprised that Pitino trusted him to make such a big play.
“I probably don’t deserve this,” Darling said. “I was pretty bad all night long. But my teammates held it down tonight. Everybody stepped up. Just happy to keep this thing rolling.”
But Darling’s teammates had faith in him as well, including Ejiofor, who scored 18 points in the win.
“I was fully confident in him making a play, a great decision, and he obviously made the best decision possible,” Ejiofor said. “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.”
Now, Pitino, Darling and St. John’s will take on the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed, Duke, in the Sweet 16 on Friday. Pitino has had several memorable matchups against Duke in his legendary career, including one of the most iconic games in the history of college basketball when the Blue Devils beat his Kentucky squad in the Elite Eight in 1992.
Pitino is hoping that Darling’s shot could be a good omen for St. John’s on Friday.
“I’m hoping we can get Duke at the buzzer next, to make up for that Christian Laettner shot,” Pitino said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
