College Basketball

Two years later, a New York state of mind at the Big East tournament

Published Mar. 10, 2022 3:31 p.m. ET

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By Charlotte Wilder
FOX Sports Columnist

NEW YORK, N.Y. — During a TV timeout in the first half of St. John’s-DePaul on Wednesday night, the pump-up music suddenly stopped. 

The in-arena announcer’s voice boomed over the crowd at Madison Square Garden. "As New York City became the epicenter of the pandemic, our city's medical facilities adopted an all-hands-on-deck approach …," the voice said. As it spoke, a group of regular-looking folks (aka not tall basketball people) were brought out to stand on the Big East logo painted on the hardwood.

"... focused on stopping the spread of COVID-19 and responding 24/7 to the crisis facing New Yorkers," the voice continued. The people standing on the logo waved. They weren’t wearing masks. The crowd — also mostly not wearing masks, in accordance with the CDC’s new guidelines — could see their smiles.

"We’re proud to have with us front-line essential workers from Montefiore Medical Center and NYU Langone, who stepped up in unprecedented ways …" 

The crowd erupted in cheers for the medical workers as though they were athletes in a game. The St. John’s and DePaul players huddled with their coaches. The St. John’s mascot, a bird named Johnny, flapped its wings next to the cheerleaders in front of a row of fans.

You might remember this bird. It became the symbol of pandemic despair in March 2020. A camera zoomed in on the mascot as it sat in the stands, dejected. Most other NCAA tournaments had canceled play already, and the Big East pulled the plug right before the second half of the St. John’s-Creighton game. COVID-19 was spreading rapidly through New York City as medical professionals — some of whom would stand at half-court two years later — were rushing to save people who had contracted this terrifying new virus.

"We were coming back after a commercial break, and in my ear, they go, ‘OK, 20 seconds. Wait, the game is abandoned. OK, 15 seconds,’" FOX Sports’ Rob Stone told me Wednesday at halftime of St. John’s vs. DePaul. "I was like, ‘What do I say?’ We’d never been through a pandemic before."

There was no question that the game this week would resume for the second half. Fans and players were (ostensibly) vaccinated, and after two years, the stands were as packed as you’d expect for the first day of the tournament. Tickets were sold out for the rest of the week.

Last year, I covered the Big East tournament. No one thought, when that sad bird sat in the empty stands in March 2020, that we’d be watching sports with zero fans a year later. "It’ll be a few weeks at most," I remember saying to friends as the first month of COVID ticked by. 

But the fact that the 2021 Big East Tournament took place at all was a minor miracle, given the fact that you could be vaccinated in March 2021 only if you were high-risk. 

Last year, I wrote that "Georgetown’s Jamorko Pickett stood at the free-throw line in complete silence." From the bridge at Madison Square Garden, high above the court, I could hear every sneaker squeak. No one else was in the press box, and I wasn’t allowed anywhere near the players. Stone and his crew covered the game from Los Angeles.

This year, I watched Aminu Mohammed as he stood at the line for a free throw while Seton Hall fans booed so loudly that, even right next to the court, I couldn’t hear the ball as he bounced it. Before the game, in the depths of MSG, I watched Seton Hall warm up. Players did jumping jacks and skips in the hallway. "Stay loose, one game at a time," they were saying. As Mohammed shot his shot, the reporters next to me had an exchange I couldn’t hear because the crowd was too loud.

The Big East at MSG this year was a decidedly New York experience, a sigh of relief. I remember how the city felt like an apocalyptic ghost town in the days leading up to and after the 2020 tournament. The day before the St. John’s game shut down (right before the Utah Jazz’s Rudy Gobert touched a bunch of microphones and then tested positive for COVID), I waited in a line that snaked around the entire perimeter of my Brooklyn grocery store to buy canned food and pasta. I went home and scrubbed my hands raw, not knowing that the man breathing inches behind me as I neared the register was a bigger threat than anything I had touched.

This city was hit the hardest the soonest by COVID, and anyone who lived here at the time — especially people who had to work through the chaos, like those honored Wednesday or the person who rang me up at the store — remembers. There was sudden silence in arenas, streets and offices. 

So on Wednesday, fans didn’t seem to take being at MSG for granted, and two of the teams playing brought a huge home crowd. St. John’s has campuses in Manhattan and Queens, and Seton Hall is in neighboring New Jersey.

Even Georgetown has a New York tie in Patrick Ewing, the only truly good thing that has happened to the Knicks since the ‘70s (OK, maybe not, but also maybe yes). On Wednesday, Ewing wore orange sneakers.

The New Jersey faithful who came to the city to watch their team play a game that started after 10 p.m. and lasted well past midnight were hoping for victory over the Hoyas. But even they couldn’t help but cheer for Ewing as his name was announced. A group of three young guys sitting near me weren’t wearing Georgetown gear, but one was wearing a Ewing jersey, and they all cheered whenever Georgetown scored.

Speaking of Georgetown, something must be in the water when Ewing takes the court at MSG. Because last year, after a not great season, the Hoyas got hot and won the Big East. This year, they have been abysmal — 0-19 in conference play. They’ve had the lead in only three of those games, and even then, those leads were only three points. The team came into the tournament as an 11-seed. 

But in the first round, the Hoyas notched their biggest in-game, in-conference lead of the season and put up a valiant fight, even though they lost 57-53. One Georgetown fan DMed me on Instagram that "it should be illegal for Georgetown to go 0-19 and give me hope like that at the last second."

Real joy was back at the Garden on Wednesday, and so were the pomp and circumstance of March college basketball in NYC. America continues to try to lurch toward something resembling the place we knew before.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how to reconcile the joy of sports — and having a job based on it — with what seems like an increasingly overwhelming amount of suffering here and across the globe. Russia brought war on Ukraine, and almost one million Americans have died from COVID, not to mention all the other tragedies that don’t (but probably should) dominate headlines. It can be soul-crushing. 

It also makes clear that moments of delight are massive privileges. Sports and art are the first things to go in pandemics and war. The privilege of enjoying them comes with huge responsibility. There’s a responsibility to try to make things better for others anyway you can, no matter how small the impact might be and even when you feel helpless.

Perhaps another aspect of that responsibility is really, deeply appreciating the moments that are good, as Wednesday’s were. Unless you’re a Xavier, DePaul or Georgetown fan, of course. But even then, a losing sports team? What a lucky problem to have. 

"Normal," it turns out, is fragile and fleeting, and everything can change overnight. Lightness must be treasured.

As Seton Hall clinched the win over Georgetown, Madison Square Garden reached decibels usually reserved for NASCAR races. The Seton Hall fans were on their feet, hugging their friends, screaming their heads off. The school’s band members hugged one another, trumpets clanging against saxophones. 

As people filtered out of the arena, a jazzy song began, and Billy Joel’s voice drifted through the air. 

"Some folks like to get away,
Take a holiday from the neighborhood,
Hop a flight to Miami Beach,
Or to Hollywood.

But I'm taking a Greyhound,
On the Hudson River Line,
I'm in a New York state of mind."

Charlotte Wilder is a general columnist and cohost of "The People's Sports Podcast" for FOX Sports. She's honored to represent the constantly neglected Boston area in sports media, loves talking to sports fans about their feelings and is happiest eating a hotdog in a ballpark or nachos in a stadium. Follow her on Twitter @TheWilderThings.

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College Basketball

Big East

Georgetown Hoyas

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DePaul Blue Demons

Seton Hall Pirates

Charlotte Wilder