Dylan Darling’s buzzer-beater sends St. John’s to Sweet 16

St. John’s basketball is back, and thanks to its 67-65 win over Kansas on Sunday, it is in the Sweet 16 for the first time in over 25 years. While head coach Rick Pitino deserves a ton of credit for putting the program back on the map, they had a far more unlikely hero step up in the biggest moment on Sunday. 

Basketball Dylan Darling sends St. John’s to Sweet 16 with buzzer-beating shot

Dylan Darling is not one of St. John’s biggest offensive contributors, at least not when it comes to scoring. He averaged just seven points per game during the 2025-26 season, and on Sunday, he missed each of his first four field goal attempts against Kansas.

But in the closing seconds, he hit the game-winning lay-up for his first (and only) basket of the game, perfectly driving to the hoop and making one of the biggest shots in the history of the program. 

It could not have been more perfectly timed and clutch. 

The fact that he is the first player in NCAA tournament history to ever hit a buzzer-beater for their first basket of the game is a testament to how unlikely his basket was in this game. It was the fact that he was the player who had the game-winning play drawn up for him. 

While he is one of the team’s most fearless and gutsy players, he is not usually the player who drives the offense. His 7.9 points per game during the regular season placed him seventh among St. John’s players, while his 21.3 minutes per game were fifth. His 179 field goal attempts were also only seventh on the team. He’s just not the player you expect to have the ball in his hands for that shot, in that situation. But Pitino believed in him, and Darling delivered. 

It also continues what has been a remarkable story for him during his college basketball career. After barely playing for two years at Washington State, he eventually ended up at Idaho State for one year, where he averaged 19.8 points per game and started to make a name for himself.

Now he has helped put St. John’s into the Sweet 16 and made his name a giant one in New York City basketball.