With 3.9 seconds left and the score tied at 65, Dylan Darling caught the ball, drove the lane and kissed a layup off the glass. St. John’s 67, Kansas 65. The Red Storm were going to the Sweet 16 for the first time in 27 years, and a kid from Spokane had put them there with the only basket he scored all night.
The shot made Darling a household name overnight in March Madness circles. For anyone who followed pro football in the early 2000s, the last name rang a different kind of bell.
Dylan James Darling is the son of James Darling, who spent a decade as an NFL linebacker and built a reputation as one of the more durable, consistent tacklers of his era. The father was in San Diego watching. The layup was his, too, in its own way.
James Darling’s Decade in the NFL
James Darling arrived in the league as the Philadelphia Eagles’ second-round pick in the 1997 NFL Draft, 57th overall, out of Washington State. He earned first-team All-Pac-10 honors as a senior and second-team All-Pac-10 as a junior, and was a second-team All-American his senior season. The Eagles got exactly what they paid for: a physical linebacker who showed up every week.
Darling played four seasons in Philadelphia before moving to the New York Jets for two years and then finishing his career with the Arizona Cardinals from 2003 through 2006. In 139 NFL games, he accumulated 398 tackles, 7.5 sacks, six interceptions and four forced fumbles. The production was steady across a decade, which is harder to sustain than any single standout season.
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Arizona gave him his longest run at any one club. His 2004 season with the Cardinals was his most productive statistically, and he remained a starter until injuries ended his career in 2006.
Dylan Darling Carved His Own Path
Dylan Darling grew up in Spokane rather than following his father into football. He chose basketball, and he dominated. As a senior at Central Valley High School, he averaged 33.2 points per game, shattering the Greater Spokane League scoring record previously held by Adam Morrison and winning the Washington 4A Player of the Year award. His 58-point performance in one regular-season game broke the league’s single-game record by 11 points.
He went to Washington State, the same school his father starred at in football, but a medical redshirt season derailed his progress. He transferred to Idaho State, where everything clicked. In 2024-25, Darling averaged 19.8 points and 5.7 assists per game, became one of only three players nationally to rank inside the top 30 in both categories, and won Big Sky Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year in the same season.
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He joined Rick Pitino’s St. John’s program as a graduate transfer and developed into the kind of connector player a March Madness run requires. He emerged as the starting point guard down the stretch and became a reliable contributor in conference play. He stepped up in the BIG EAST Tournament Championship against UConn, dishing five assists against the two-time defending national champions.
The Kansas game-winner was his only basket of the night. It sent fifth-seeded St. John’s to the Sweet 16 at 30-6, and now the Red Storm face top-seeded Duke at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. tonight. Dylan Darling didn’t inherit a basketball career. He built one. The layup was just the proof.
