Dick Weiss on College Basketball
PHILADELPHIA– St. John’s basketball program crashed and burned yesterday, losing to Metro Big East rival, 68-62, in a morgue like atmosphere at the UBC Arena in Elmont
N.Y.
It has been an amazing fall from grace for the Red Storm, who was 12-4 on January 10 and looked like it was steaming toward an NCAA at large bid. The Johnnies have now lost eight of their last 10 games and it appears their bubble has burst. St. John’s is currently in ninth place in an 11-team league.
You can imagine how the frustrated 71-year -old Pitino, a Naismith Hall of Fame coach who was the first coach ever to take three different schools– Providence, Kentucky and Louisville– to the Final Four and has won two national championships, is reacting to this botched rebuild.
We found out quickly in post-game when he took shots at his roster and blamed the 11 new players he recruited after leaving Iona last spring and criticized the school’s facilities during a 15-minute rant that has gone viral.
“If I said I was disappointed that would be the understatement of the year,” he said.
Do we have shitting facilities? Yes, we do, but we’re doing something about that. But that’s not the reason we’re losing. Having shitty facilities has nothing to do with guarding.
We are so unathletic that we can’t guard anybody without fouling. For me I’ve always enjoyed the first year and I’m not gonna lie, to you. This has been the most unenjoyable.
experience of my lifetime. This has been so disappointing.”
Pitino could have stopped there. But he went on to call out players by name.
“Look, Joel Soriano is slow laterally, he’s not fast on the court,” Pitino said. “Chris Ledlum is slow laterally. Sean Conway’s slow laterally.
Brady Dunlap is physically weak. Drissa Traore is slow laterally.”
St/ John’s was a disaster waiting to happen during a second loss to the Hall. They shot 33 percent, shot just 6 for 25 from the three and committed 15 turnovers, squandering a
19- point lead during a second loss to the Hall.
“We lost this season with the way we recruited,” Pitino said. “The players don’t align with the coaches. We recruited the antitheus of the way I coach, with speed, quickness, fundamentals, strength and toughness. It’s a good group. They try really hard, but they just are not tough.’
Wait a minute.
Pitino had a chance to change things when he first arrived at St. John’s. But he indicated in his first presser most of the players on last year’s roster probably wouldn’t
be back because they’re probably not a good fit for me.”
Pitino did a wholesale makeover, coming in 11 new players. He kept the 6-10 Soriano, a useful big man, but lost some productive like guard AJ Storr to Wisconsin, forward David Jones to Memphis, guard Alexander to Butler and forward O’Mar Stanley to Boise State. All are having good seasons. Storr has been the best transfer in the Big Ten. Jones is averaging over 21 points for Memphis. Alexander starts for Butler. The 6-8 Stanley just had 30 against San Jose State.
When Pitino went to Providence and Kentucky, he had huge rebuilds. But he didn’t pull a Deion Sanders and run players off. He coached them up and they all got
better with individual instruction.
But this is completely out of character. Now he’s blaming many of the players he brought in as not being good enough. His speech was reminiscent of the “Larry Bird, McHale and Parish aren’t walking through the door” rant he had when he was coaching a Celtics roster he put together in the late 90-s and couldn’t win.
Pitino has been a great coach in college, maybe the best in the country in the 1990s when he coached in the Blue Grass. but he has to take some responsibility for
misevaluating talent. It’s not like St. John’s lacks NIL funding.
Things figure to get better in Year 2.
But for now, every game is an adventure. St. John’s has Georgetown, which has won just one game in the Big East, Wednesday in D.C. But the game is not a gimme. “I’m just getting ready for Georgetown,” he said. “Because Georgetown can definitely beat us.”
