It wasn’t a great season for St. John’s or Georgetown this year. The two historically proud Big East institutions met in the opening round of the Big East conference tournament at Madison Square Garden sporting 14-18 records on the season and sitting in 8th and 9th place respectively in the conference.

Perhaps those poor seasons are why tensions boiled over in the second half, not just amongst the players but the coaches as well. After a hard foul and some pushing and shoving on the floor (first video), Georgetown head coach John Thompson III and St. John’s head coach Chris Mullin exchanged pleasantries and had to be separated by almost everyone on the floor.

Wow! It is very rare that you see two coaches go at it like that, especially out on the middle of the hardwood.

The game down to the wire with St. John’s winning when Georgetown missed a shot to win it at the buzzer.

After the game, Mullin had a couple hilarious quotes about the confrontation with Thompson, saying that the intensity of the game was great and his exchange with Thompson didn’t have much heat compared to how Big East basketball was back in the day.

Both Mullin and Thompson have to be under some supreme pressure at their institutions in spite of their legacies at St John’s and Georgetown. Mullin is just 21-42 in two seasons in New York while Thompson’s program has continued to slide backward. After a series of early exits from the Big Dance, Georgetown has failed to get above .500 for the last two seasons.

While St. John’s victory might be a brief respite for Mullin and the program, they get the prize of playing defending champion Villanova in the next round of the Big East tournament.