One win down, two to go for St. John’s basketball to accomplish something it hasn’t done in 25 years: win a Big East Championship.

“To see St. John’s stay in the Big East and finally be successful, it’s been a dream come true this season,” St. John’s alum Christian Mosher said.

The Johnnies took care of business at Madison Square Garden Thursday afternoon, beating Butler University 78-57, looking very much like the top-seeded team they are.

“I think Rick Pitino is doing something great with his defense right now,” St. John’s student Luke Gallo said.

The win came just one day after RJ Luis Jr. was named Big East Player of the Year and Head Coach Rick Pitino was named Big East Coach of the Year.

Pitino is particularly entertaining to watch as he paces the sidelines.

“That’s all we were watching the whole time,” St. John’s sophomore Kristina Turbo said. “I was like, ‘Look at Pitino, look at Pitino.’”

“We were like, ‘Next time we got to sit on the other side, we gotta see his face, we got to see his reactions to everything,’” Gallo said.

It’s Coach Pitino’s second year coaching the Johnnies.

“I remember wanting him, when everything went down with Louisville, wanting him to come to St. John’s when I was in my dorm room back in the day,” Mosher said. “To finally have him, I expected results like this. I thought he would be the one to be able to turn us around.”

Mosher has waited a while for this. The team wasn’t this good when he was on campus.

“It’s been the time of my life,” Mosher said. “I grew up a big college basketball fan, going to games for a small team upstate, Siena College, with my grandparents, so my decision to go to St. John’s — college basketball played a big part in that.”

And current students are soaking up every second.

“You can truly feel the energy on campus when it’s game day,” Turbo said. “We had a bunch of students do art murals, like ‘We’re New York’s team’ right when you walk on campus. It’s just a great atmosphere. It’s really uniting, especially with everything that’s been going on in the world the past few years. It’s really nice and comforting to have a united community all come together and support one another.”

Teachers are showing excitement too. “They’re like, “If you don’t make it to class because of the game, I’m not looking’” Trubo said.

Well, some of them.

“Definitely not mine,” St. John’s freshman Mackenzie Link said. “Some of my professors are a little older, so I don’t think they’d be keen about it.”

But everybody’s keen on the Johnnies is making a deep run this March.

“We’ll see them in the final four, 100%,” Gallo said. “With that defense? 100%.”

“We have one goal down this season,” Mosher said. “And two more goals, as well. So we’ll see what happens next.”

The Johnnies play Marquette University in the semifinals of the Big East Tournament Friday at 6:30 p.m.