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I don't want to play against guys who shoot 10 for 12 from the floor
-- Dean Smith on Chris Mullin's 22 point performance leading St.John's to a 78-74 victory over No.3 UNC on 11/20/82. |
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St. John's can't get over the Hump
COMMENTARY
By DAVID HAUGH
Tribune Staff Writer
NEW YORK -- During a break in Notre Dame's 83-63 win over St. John's on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, a fan with Spike Lee-like seats started heckling Ryan Humphrey in Spike Lee-like fashion.
So naturally Humphrey heckled back.
He does, after all, lead the Big East in syllables and exclamation points.
"I'll talk to a stop sign,'' Humphrey kidded after the victory. "I just like to talk.''
Like when St. John's 345-pound center Curtis Johnson checked into the game in the second half and Notre Dame's one-man greeting committee mouthed something in Johnson's ear that made both players laugh. "Last time (Feb. 27 in Notre Dame's loss to St. John's here) he was the guy who changed the momentum,'' Humphrey said, "so I talked to him, 'Ain't gonna happen again.' ''
Humphrey also talked so familiarly to officials that by the end of the night they were calling fouls on Ryan instead of No. 4.
Humphrey's on-court dialogue went on so often with so many that he probably exchanged E-mail addresses after he was done exchanging banter. Humphrey never shut up.
Which might have been an annoyance for Notre Dame coach Mike Brey -- if St. John's ever shut Humphrey down. But the Red Storm never did.
The more Humphrey scored, the more he talked. And the more he talked, the more he smiled.
Which assured Brey everything would be OK.
Apparently as long as Brey sees his big guy grinning, he wouldn't mind if Humphrey announced play-by-play and introduced starting lineups, too.
"The smile kind of loosens us up at times -- (heck) it keeps me loose when he smiles,'' Brey had said earlier in the week. "I'm thinking, if the big fella's smiling, then we're going to be all right.''
Humphrey's pearly whites sparkled as often as his game did Thursday night.
From the first possession to the final buzzer, Humphrey smiled more than Sarah Hughes in Salt Lake City. Almost as much as he talked. It was the rest of the Garden crowd of 19,528 that didn't know quite what to say after his stunning display of athleticism with 21 points, 13 rebounds and six blocks.
Whether it was finishing an alley-oop, swatting shots or hitting turnaround jumpers, Humphrey confirmed to the Big East media that it had made a wise choice in naming him to its first team Monday.
Thursday's performance on the heels of last Wednesday night's 29-point, 11-rebound showing on the same court suggests Humphrey likes the Garden enough to start calling him Mr. Green Thumbs.
"Before the game I was thinking Mike (Jordan) shot layups here, Kobe (Bryant) played here,'' Humphrey said. "I love it here.''
The place is growing on his teammates, too.
Particularly point guard Chris Thomas, who showed absolutely no signs of stagefright this close to Broadway from the minute he stepped on the floor. Thomas walked onto the court for the opening tip waving a finger in rhythm with the Notre Dame band, serving as its maestro, too. Once play began he didn't miss a beat either.
His first pass was a behind-the-back special. His next one was an alley-oop to Humphrey. He took a 3-pointer from behind the NBA line.
Usually you have to go to a street vendor at Central Park to find a hot dog this good, but here was a freshman in his first Big East tournament on national TV laying the mustard on pretty thick.
"I was just kind of in the moment,'' Thomas said.
Between Thomas' resplendence and Humphrey's rhetoric, the Irish played loose and more comfortable than a St. John's team playing in its own house. A 20-point win over a team on its home court in a tournament atmosphere qualifies as a big deal in March -- especially in the Big Apple.
Imagine the Big Ten tournament being held at Assembly Hall in Bloomington. That's what the Big East annually staging this tournament here -- whether it's the "World's Most Famous Arena'' or not -- is like.
The Garden feels so much like home to St. John's that coach Mike Jarvis needed a 30-second timeout Thursday to answer the phone in his den.
That's hyperbole, of course, but there's no exaggerating how poorly St. John's shot the basketball this week despite its home-court advantage. In the first round Wednesday they missed 18 straight shots and almost lost to a bad Seton Hall team. Against Notre Dame, St. John's missed its first six shots and hit just 33 percent overall.
Red Storm players threw up so many bricks that it wouldn't have been surprising if they were asked to fill out union cards on their way out.
Meanwhile, the Irish were putting their signature on another significant game in the program's development.
"The next step,'' Brey said.
In a way Notre Dame already had survived longer in this tournament than it ever had, what with the bracket eliminating seven teams before Thursday night's 9:30 tipoff. But the way the Irish played against St. John's would have made them hard to beat at any hour, on any floor.
If they play as well tonight against Connecticut, they may wind up staying here long enough to develop an accent.
"They (Connecticut) play like they don't think they're going to lose,'' Brey said, "and right now I don't think we do either.''
Sounds like the Irish intend on making a little noise here.
A little more noise, that is.
Staff writer David Haugh
Note: South Bend Tribune, 3/8/02.
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