St. John’s Head Coach Rick Pitino Adds To Historic Coaching Resume With Another Sweet 16 Berth
In a game that had more emotional swings than a daytime soap opera, St. John’s managed to survive a brutal late-game collapse against the Kansas Jayhawks to pull off a 67-65 upset in the second round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament. And the man pulling the strings on the sideline? The legendary Rick Pitino.
But this story isn’t just about Pitino adding another Sweet 16 appearance to his Hall of Fame resume. It is about Dylan Darling, a 6-foot-1 junior guard who had spent the entire afternoon building a brick house from beyond the arc, only to demand the ball when the season was on the line.
The Setup: A Classic March Meltdown
For about 33 minutes, the Red Storm looked completely unstoppable. They led for 93% of the game. They were hitting threes at a historic clip—23 attempts in the first half alone, setting a new record for a team coached by Pitino. Big East Player of the Year Zuby Ejiofor and Providence transfer Bryce Hopkins were dominating, each pouring in 18 points. St. John’s had built a 14-point cushion in the second half, and Kansas looked completely cooked.
But this is the NCAA Tournament, and no lead is safe. The Jayhawks, led by potential No. 1 NBA Draft pick Darryn Peterson, mounted a furious comeback. Over the final six and a half minutes of regulation, Kansas outscored St. John’s 20-7. The Jayhawks clawed all the way back, capitalizing on Red Storm turnovers and a few questionable whistles.
With just 13 seconds left, Peterson calmly sank two free throws to tie the game at 65. The momentum had entirely shifted. St. John’s looked gassed, and disaster felt imminent.
Rick Pitino and the Scoreless Hero
This is where the story turns from a standard basketball game into a Hollywood script. Kansas Coach Bill Self smartly ordered his team to use their fouls to give, intentionally disrupting the Red Storm’s rhythm and bleeding the clock down to a mere 3.9 seconds.
During the final timeout, you would expect a seasoned veteran like Pitino to draw up a play for his hottest shooter. Instead, Dylan Darling, who was 0-for-4 on the day and completely scoreless, looked his head coach in the eye and asked for the ball.
According to Pitino in the post-game press conference, it was the funniest thing he has ever experienced on a basketball court. The coach admitted he hadn’t even realized Darling had 0 points. When asked what Pitino’s message to him was during that final huddle, Darling simply laughed and told reporters, “Yelling at me, per usual.”
A Finish For the History Books
With 3.9 seconds on the clock, Darling received the inbounds pass near midcourt. He didn’t hesitate. He put his head down, drove hard to the basket, blew right past Kansas defender Elmarko Jackson, and threw up a highly contested layup. The ball kissed the glass and dropped through the net just as the buzzer sounded and the backboard lit up red.
Pandemonium.
Darling’s only points of the game came on the final play. According to college basketball historians, he is the first player in the history of the NCAA Tournament to score his first points of a game on a buzzer-beating game-winner.
Surviving the Phog and Looking Ahead To Duke
The victory is massive for the St. John’s program. It sends the Red Storm to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999. For Pitino, it marks his first trip to the tournament’s second weekend since 2015, proving that the 73-year-old tactician still has plenty of magic left in his playbook. He bested Self in a heavyweight coaching bout, stifling the Jayhawks’ offense early and trusting his players when the pressure was at its absolute highest.
On the other side of the court, the heartbreak for Kansas is palpable. For the fourth consecutive season, the Jayhawks are going home before the second weekend. Despite a valiant near-comeback, their early turnovers and inability to close out the final four seconds doomed them.
Now, Pitino and his gritty squad will pack their bags for Washington, D.C., where they will face the No. 1 overall seed, the Duke Blue Devils. If this weekend taught us anything, it is that you should never count out a team that believes in itself, especially when Rick Pitino is drawing up the plays.
