by Johnnies91 » Thu Jul 11, 2013 10:37 am
St. John's/Georgetown is easily the most historic rivalry in this conference and moving forward with Lavin/JT3 this rivalry will be restarted. With SJU's major decline over the last decade the rivalry has suffered mightily. Pair that with Georgetown's struggles in the late 90's early 2000's, missing the NCAA tournament 7 of 8 years from the 97-98 season to the 2004-05 season, a stretch that St. John's had success (1998 2nd in Big East, upset as 7 seed in NCAA Tourney; 1999 Elite 8, lost to OSU by 3 points to just miss Final 4 appearance against UConn; 2000 Big East Tournament Champs, 2 seed in NCAA Tourney upset by Gonzaga in 2nd round; 2002 9 seed in NCAA Tourney lost in 1st round-vacated season and root of future struggles) Also, it's worth noting that they played each for the 2003 NIT Championship (I know, I know nobody cares about the NIT) but it was still a great game that SJU won 70-67. So, during the short run that St. John's experienced some success over the last 15 years Georgetown was down and since Georgetown has revived their program into a national power once again St. John's has struggled with the exception of the lone NCAA Tournament appearance in 2011. Both schools know their extensive history with each other during the glory days of the Big East in the 1980's with the epic Mullin/Ewing battles, culminating with the 1985 Final 4 matchup Georgetown won, and would like nothing more than to return to their roots in those battles as the conference returns to its roots as a basketball centric conference. Make no mistake this is the most historic rivalry in the conference as well as one of the most historic rivalries in the nation and will be re-energized as Steve Lavin returns the program to national relevance through his extraordinary recruiting efforts. Georgetown/SJU will be THE new/old rivalry in the New Big East.