The last 15 years isn't all that college basketball has to offer America. SJU has a long and successful history. Uconn fans should remember where they came from before Jim Calhoun before knocking SJU's bball history.
St John's has a nice history but many St John's fans try to believe that before the Jarvis dismissal they were on an equal level with UCLA, UNC, Indiana & Kentucky. The reality is they were Bradley, DePaul and Temple (LaSalle could fit as well but they actually have national title).
The fact is that they were a regional power for the most part pre BE and save the Mullin years, were not all that special nationally (about 30 other schools could claim equal or better results from the mid 1980's to the late 1990's) as a BE school and benefitted greatly by the gambling scandals that eventually killed the men's hoops programs at NYU, CCNY & LIU. Additionally, what they hold their hat on primarily (NIT titles) occurred almost exclusively after the NCAA clearly surpassed the NIT in prestige (except in the rhetoric of a handful of eastern private schools who had little NCAA success) and it was a tournament that they were one of the owners/managers of. The deck was always stacked somewhat in their favor when they were in that tourney, especially when the other NY schools who were partners in that tourney no longer played competitive hoops.
