Chapter 1: What challenges does St. John's face in the tournament?
Looking at this bracket, it made me realize just how screwed St. John's got. Yeah. And when you look at, you know, not only are they in the East, they have to start out in San Diego. That's a part of the East. First of all, that's stupid. All right? The second thing is, is that if they do win...
okay, they're most likely going to have to play Kansas, who has the best player in college basketball if he wants to play. That's right. Then if they win that one, most likely they're going to have to play Duke. Yeah. And Duke is the number one seed unless Siena somehow upsets them. They are missing a couple guys. Or whoever comes out of the 8-9 game could upset them as well. Yeah, right.
But it's most likely going to be like the Sweet 16 is going to be St. John's and Duke. That's what I think. I think St. John's is going to beat Kansas somehow. I hope so. I mean, I think that maybe this is a good, not the traveling.
I hate the traveling, but maybe this is a good thing for them, the way that they ended up beating up on UConn and then getting the five seed and then seeing UConn get a two seed and just the ending up, you know, ranked 10th overall overall. At the end of the year and then ended up a five seed, maybe that's the chip on the shoulder that gets him through some of these moments.
And the other aspect, the other part of this, there could be a St. John's UConn Part 4. There could be. In the Elite Eight. Yeah. Which is very possible. You signed for that right now. I would say, you know, watching the Johnnies on Saturday night. I mean, the defense is smothering. I know they've shot a little bit better during the Big East tournament.
Rick is one of the best coaches, if not the best coach, left in this tournament. And he'll have his guys ā he should have his guys on Razor's Edge. He's basically ā he's been building this team for this moment. Yeah. And they have gotten better since their loss at UConn. They've gotten better and better and better and better.
And their defense and shooting has been really, I mean, outstanding. And their defense especially. And they play 10 guys. Everybody knows this who follows them. And they know that they are relentless on defense. And Rick will always say, Rick Pitino will always say, you know, defense leads the offense. Defense leads the offense. And he's exactly right.
And that's why I got them going to the Final Four in my bracket. Wow. If you care. Wow. Well, I care because it's St. John's. And you know what? What? You know how I'm happy for Wally? Yeah. I'm happy for your mom.
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Chapter 2: How has St. John's improved since their last game?
Oh, being a big St. John's fan? Oh, my God. Well, don't be happy if they win a couple games in the tournament. When I was doing this, all I kept thinking about was your mom. Yeah, well, she's a huge watcher every single second of every game. And I was just thinking, you know, Gio's mom. There's something about what's going on here. St. John's grad, so it's not some sort of farcical thing.
Oh, no, no, she's into it. Grew up in Queens, Corona, Queens, St. John's grad, so... Yeah, she's a huge St. John's fan and watches every second of every game and texts me throughout every one of them. And it's been a long time since St. John's has been in the Sweet 16.
1999, I was still in high school when that was going on with Mike Jarvis and the Eric Barkley team, where Eric Barkley ended up dribbling the ball off his foot in the Elite Eight game. I remember that game, even though it was so long ago. And that's why you want them to go as far as possible. If they go to the Final Four, that's just amazing.
That's going to be a memory for a very, very long time. But right now, I just get to the Sweet 16 against Duke and play a competitive game there, and I'm thrilled. I really am. Duke's missing a couple guys with injuries. Come on now. Let's go. Let's just ask it a lot. I got them against Florida in the Final Four. I got Florida winning that one.
Chapter 3: What role does Rick Pitino play in St. John's success?
Okay. And Florida's going to be playing Arizona, who's going to be beating Michigan. I got a lot of chalk picks. I'm sorry. Chalk? You want chalk? In the middle of this whole thing, I picked some upsets. We'll say John certainly isn't chalk. Yeah, but there are five. They're not a one or a two. There are five. Right, that's not chalk. Chalk is one or two. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, so St.
John's is not chalk. Oh, I see what you're saying. And you're saying you had a ton of chalk. I'm saying, well, St. John's isn't chalk. Well, I got Arizona, Michigan, Florida in the Final Four. That's chalk. Yeah, you got some chalk there. That's some chalk. I got three-quarters chalk. And you probably, if you weren't tied to locally St.
John's, you probably wouldn't be picking up for the Final Four. I will say, after watching them through the Big East Tournament, I'm a little emotionally involved right now. Well, you should be. And sometimes that's dangerous.
Chapter 4: Why is the Sweet 16 matchup against Duke significant?
You know, when you put your brackets together, you're gambling on a game here or there. I'm just like, I'm emotionally invested. Yeah, well, we also had a great day with Coach Patino before the season started. Got a full rundown of the team and the things he was expecting, and it felt like we were connected to this group of young men a little bit more than before. I say connected.
Oh, yeah, well, connected as a coach. You may have been more connected just because of your mom's connection, but I... You were connected that day. I was connected that day. You asked more questions about St. John's than I did. I was like, he doesn't want to talk about St. John's right now. Let's talk about other things. If we're playing golf with you and you're the head coach of St.
John's and you've got a good team coming back, I want to know about it. I know. I'm sorry if I impacted you in a negative way. You didn't. I'm just saying I was a little surprised you were hammering him with that. I was like, wow, you were just going on and on asking these questions. He was happy to answer them because he's a gracious, wonderful man, but it was just one after another.
This is what I do. You're going nil, and you're going this, and the player's the same, and I'm like, man, why don't we just do a... Game time here with Rick Pitino while we're at it. Why don't we just throw a camera? Why don't we throw a GoPro on your head? That's exactly what it was. It's like a freaking interrogation. I have questions that need answers.
Chapter 5: What emotional investment do fans have in St. John's performance?
So that's what I'm saying. You're a little more connected to this St. John's team than others because you got all the info before the season. And you can bitch and complain about this, but you learned a lot that day. I did. I'm not. I mean, I was just surprised. That's all. I was like, man, let this guy breathe. Wow, that was amazing.
And you were really happy that morning, but now all of a sudden you're bringing it back as if it was a negative. I was happy that morning because we had a great time. But, I mean, now that we're a little removed from it, I can go back and say, wow, you were just ā it was like you sat down in that chair, put the flashlight on his face and just ā What about this guy? What about that guy?
What about this guy? Is he a good kid? Is he a good kid? Is this guy a good kid? I want to know if they're good people. How much are we paying this guy? Where's the money for him? That's exactly right. Is a team like Maryland bigger to be able to do this? I'm like, man, it's got to be something else we could talk about. This is a legendary college basketball coach. I need answers. No, I know.
How many times, like, you know, last year, I played in a Parks and Recreation golf tournament with John McEnroe, did the same thing to him. Oh, did you? Oh, yeah. Well, you know what? I will say, even though that was a bit uncomfortable for me, I will say that. Uncomfortable? You're playing wing foot, dude. How is that uncomfortable? Well, because that's exactly why.
Would you have been playing wing foot had we not been working together? No, of course not. All right. But what I'm saying was, and that's a totally different conversation. It's space, dude. Well, that's the thing. Yeah, let him breathe a little bit. That's all. I was like, man, I don't know if we're going to get another invite after all this. You may not get one. I'll be there.
Don't worry about it. No, he'll love me. I guarantee he went back. He was like, man, that Gio was great. He was nice and quiet. He didn't invite us, although he could have. He wasn't the one who invited us. Well, anyway, I was just about to say something, though, that's on your side and agreeing with you, is that you get a lot of that wherever you go.
So you want to, like, return the favor type of thing. Like, when you're out, you know, tell me about this game, tell me about that game, the AFC Championship, or was it like the icky shuffle and Munoz and this and that? Oh, he came to the Jets, one of the co-tight years.
Some people hammer you with all that stuff, so you feel like you've got to pay it forward to somebody else and start hammering them about their lives.
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