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St. John’s coach Rick Pitino said Dylan Darling wanted to run a play that would put him in a position to make the game-winning shot against Kansas.
Darling hit a layup as time expired to give the No. 5 Red Storm a 67-65 win over No. 4 Kansas and send the school to its first Sweet 16 since 1999. Kansas tied the game with 13 seconds to go on two free throws and had committed just two fouls in the half at that point.
After fouling St. John’s four times — and not running enough time off the clock in the process — the Red Storm had the ball at mid-court with 3.9 seconds left for an inbounds play. And Darling wanted the ball.
“Here’s the amazing thing and it’s the funniest thing I’ve ever been involved with. So we’re going to run a play — but they’ve got fouls to give,” Pitino said in his postgame news conference. “And Bells comes up to me and says ‘run power’ which is a high back-screen pick and roll. So I walk away and I say ‘OK, power.’ I walk away and said ‘wait a second, he hasn’t scored a bucket and he wants to run a play for himself.’ And I’m thinking as I’m walking ‘but he’s Bells.’
“And not only did he do it, but he went with his right hand. So real proud of him. Because to want the ball when you haven’t made a shot is unbelievable.”
“Bells” is the left-handed Darling’s nickname. That’s short for “Church Bells” after Pitino said earlier this season that Darling has “balls as big as church bells.” That comment came after Darling had five points in the final 80 seconds and the go-ahead 3-pointer in an 88-83 win over Xavier in January.
The win over the Musketeers was Pitino’s 900th career victory. Sunday’s win marked the first second-week appearance for the Red Storm in nearly three decades, and set up a massive game against No. 1 Duke on Friday.
Darling also made NCAA tournament history with his basket. He became the first player to hit a game-winning buzzer-beater without scoring a single point before the shot. His layup was also just the sixth game-winning buzzer-beater in the last decade since Villanova’s Kris Jenkins made one of the most famous shots in NCAA tournament history in his game-winner against North Carolina in the national title game.
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Darling hit a layup as time expired to give the No. 5 Red Storm a 67-65 win over No. 4 Kansas and send the school to its first Sweet 16 since 1999. Kansas tied the game with 13 seconds to go on two free throws and had committed just two fouls in the half at that point.
After fouling St. John’s four times — and not running enough time off the clock in the process — the Red Storm had the ball at mid-court with 3.9 seconds left for an inbounds play. And Darling wanted the ball.
“Here’s the amazing thing and it’s the funniest thing I’ve ever been involved with. So we’re going to run a play — but they’ve got fouls to give,” Pitino said in his postgame news conference. “And Bells comes up to me and says ‘run power’ which is a high back-screen pick and roll. So I walk away and I say ‘OK, power.’ I walk away and said ‘wait a second, he hasn’t scored a bucket and he wants to run a play for himself.’ And I’m thinking as I’m walking ‘but he’s Bells.’
“And not only did he do it, but he went with his right hand. So real proud of him. Because to want the ball when you haven’t made a shot is unbelievable.”
“Bells” is the left-handed Darling’s nickname. That’s short for “Church Bells” after Pitino said earlier this season that Darling has “balls as big as church bells.” That comment came after Darling had five points in the final 80 seconds and the go-ahead 3-pointer in an 88-83 win over Xavier in January.
The win over the Musketeers was Pitino’s 900th career victory. Sunday’s win marked the first second-week appearance for the Red Storm in nearly three decades, and set up a massive game against No. 1 Duke on Friday.
Darling also made NCAA tournament history with his basket. He became the first player to hit a game-winning buzzer-beater without scoring a single point before the shot. His layup was also just the sixth game-winning buzzer-beater in the last decade since Villanova’s Kris Jenkins made one of the most famous shots in NCAA tournament history in his game-winner against North Carolina in the national title game.
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