St. John’s quest to finally return to Sweet 16 has been years in the making

SAN DIEGO — The dressing room at Thompson-Boling Arena was funereal, the usual soundtrack to the end of a basketball season. All around the room St. John’s basketball players slowly peeled off socks, cut off ankle tape and mourned the loss of a season that had, quite unexpectedly, brought them right to the brink of a Final Four. 

A week earlier they’d throttled Indiana, still coached by Bob Knight, by 24 points in Orlando. Two days before they’d breezed past Maryland, still coached by Gary Williams, by 15. They’d become the feel-good story of the tournament, and it felt like half of New York had migrated to Knoxville, Tenn., and taken over the University of Tennessee campus to see if Ron Artest and Erick Barkley and Bootsy Thornton could keep this going. 

They couldn’t. Barkley lost a ball off his leg late, the Johnnies lost to Ohio State, 77-74, and now there was the quiet room, with Thornton’s quiet voice barely audible: “Next year, this will be different.” 

Outside the room, crowded close to by the door, Mike Jarvis was chatting with a small group of reporters. This was still early in Jarvis’ honeymoon phase in Jamaica, when his approval rating hovered at around 175 percent. He was a confident man. Defeat hadn’t altered that.