The first round of the NCAA Tournament has already featured a number of exciting moments, but there may have been nothing crazier than one of the bench celebrations we saw from a St. John’s player.
As many expected, 2-seed St. John’s advanced to the round of 32 with an easy 83-53 win over 15-seed Omaha on Thursday. While the Red Storm came out a bit sluggish and did not pull away until the second half, there was certainly plenty of enthusiasm from their bench.
Sophomore guard Simeon Wilcher drained a three-pointer to put St. John’s up 28-23 with about five minutes remaining in the first half. One of Wilcher’s teammates celebrated the shot by dropping into the prone position and acting like he was a sniper.
This sniper celebration for St John's is a little much. pic.twitter.com/2hWe0wYKNl
— Rare Rookies #BBN (@rarerookies) March 21, 2025
Some people may have felt the sniper celebration was over the top, but that is the type of energy an NCAA Tournament team wants to see from the bench.
A lot of people have picked St. John’s to reach the Final Four. With bench antics like that and some of the passion we have seen from Rick Pitino this year, you can understand why.
