Chris Mullin ignites St. John's, MSG crowd by nearly fighting Georgetown coaches

NEW YORK – For a moment it felt like Madison Square Garden had turned into a time machine.

With two of the Big East’s oldest programs battling to advance to the tournament’s quarterfinals, tempers were bound to flare and boil over – which is exactly what happened between St. John’s and Georgetown on Wednesday night.

With 8:35 left in the second half, Georgetown guard L.J. Peak crashed to the rim – and then to the ground – sparking a fracas that ignited the New York City crowd.

After quickly bouncing up from the floor, Peak went after Red Storm forward Amar Alibegovic, who fouled him hard on the contested basket, causing a scrum that drew in St. John’s head coach Chris Mullin, Georgetown head coach John Thompson III and assistant coach Patrick Ewing Jr. – two second-generation Hoyas who know these battles all too well.

“Kids were playing hard,” Thompson said. “Coaches were coaching hard. I think it’s just the heat of the battle. It’s just competition, man.”

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Alibegovic was issued a flagrant foul while Mullin and Ewing Jr. each received technical fouls.

But much like Thompson III and Ewing Jr., Mullin knows these games. And to take it a step further, Mullin knows this building, this city and this crowd perhaps better than anyone.

“Close game like that, the whole team is going to lose, their season is over,” Mullin said. “It was just really competitive juices flowing towards the end of the game there.”

While MSG – and Twitter – exploded discussing the impromptu shouting match, St. John’s was ready. Before the game, Mullin imparted some of his Big East wisdom onto the kids.

“We were very aware of the rivalry,” Red Storm guard Malik Ellison said. “When Coach Mullin was playing they were very physical and they were very competitive. We really fought for him.”

In addition to having a Ph.D. in Big East battles, Mullin also knows his team, the situation Shamorie Ponds is in, and how the freshman guard would respond to the heightened stakes.

Ponds, a Brooklyn native, is the key cog in a rebuilding St. John’s program that New York City is eager to embrace, much like it did when Mullin took the team to four straight NCAA tournaments from 1981-85.

Even before the fracas, shouts of “Knicks’ next backcourt” could be heard in the Garden, referring to Ponds and redshirt freshman Marcus LoVett. Afterward, it turned into a zoo – with Ponds turning into Mullin circa 1985, drilling a critical 3-pointer that felt so pure he didn’t even watch it soar in.

“It was a lot of emotions,” Ponds said after the game. “I love games like that, so when the crowd is going and both teams are playing physical, I just live for moments like that.”

In a game in which neither team led by double figures, the intensity lasted until the final buzzer, where – despite a frantic spree by the Hoyas in the closing seconds – St. John’s held on to earn its first Big East tournament win since 2011 and Mullin’s first as a head coach.

“The energy and enthusiasm before the game is nice, but you have to maintain for 40 minutes, especially this time of year,” Mullin said. “[These guys] made big plays when they had to.”

As for the latest chapter in the Georgetown-St. John’s rivalry, the ink has dried, but you can be sure the book is still being written.

“I asked [Ewing Jr.] if he was going to beat me up like his father did,” Mullin jokingly said about the postgame handshake.

“He said, ‘No, I love you.’ He was on the trip with us in Barcelona [in 1992] when he was a little baby. In ’85 there was more to it. Not in the year 2017.”