St. John's Campus Buzzing After Back-To-Back Wins Over Top-5 Teams

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- First, the St. John's Red Storm took down fourth-ranked Duke at Madison Square Garden.

They were not satisfied.

Just four days later, they shocked the No. 1 team in the country, Villanova, on the road.

"It's something you dream of when you're growing up -- taking those last shots, to beat the No. 1 team, to beat Duke," guard Justin Simon told CBS2's Otis Livingston.

"Two wins of that magnitude, it feels great," said forward Tariq Owens. "A lot of people don't get to do that, but that's something I can say that we've done in our basketball careers."

The Red Storm were 0-11 in Big East games until the win over Villanova on Wednesday night, their first victory over a top-ranked squad since 1985, when they defeated Georgetown. The star of that team is St. John's current head coach, Chris Mullin.

"I guess historically it's something people could look up, but we were just really just trying to get a win and turn the tides a little bit," Mullin said.

The Queens campus has been buzzing this entire week. About 250 students greeted the team around midnight when the players arrived back home from their big win in Philadelphia.

"Having the fans gather around the basketball and just as a university and knowing that we've been proud of them from Day 1 and seeing them fight and finally come on top for once was definitely something big for the university," said St. John's student William Pugh Jr.

"These past two wins are unreal, absolutely unreal," added student Brian Wagner. "Campus is buzzing. People that are not really St. John's basketball fans are now hyped."

"I don't really watch basketball on campus, but I actually tuned in and watched the two games vs. Duke and Villanova, and it was very exciting to win," said Violet Krause, another student. "Everyone on campus is talking about it. I see so many Instagram posts talking about how good we've done. Everyone's just so excited for our team."

Mullin was asked if it will be hard to keep his team grounded. He said, "I don't think it's possible to get ahead of yourself when you're constantly getting your head beat in."

Next up for the Johnnies is a matchup with Marquette on Saturday.