Dick Weiss on College Basketball
NEW YORK CITY– It hasn’t taken long for St. John’s to become Rick Pitino’s team and for Pitino to own Madison Square Garden again.
We saw it when he was head coach of the Knicks for two years in the late 1980s and had the arena rocking when they played Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls all they wanted in a 1989 NBA second round series.
Now, it’s happening again.
The 73-year-old Pitino’s coaching brilliance was on display during a 70-50 victory over former Big East kingpin Villanova before a crowd of 12859 that included four former Nova stars and current NBA players– Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, Mikel Bridges and Ryan Arcidiacono– sitting courtside. He has taken a team with 10 new players and has transformed them into the darling of the city. The Storm may only be 13-7 but they have come light years from the team that was embarrassed by Michigan in their Garden debut in November.
The Red Storm dominated both ends of the court. Center Joel Soriano scored 16 of his 21 points in the second half as the Storm turned a 10-point halftime lead into a blowout. The Johnnies outrebounded the Cats, 43-23, turning 15 offensive rebounds into 17 second chance points. They created problems for the Cats’ halfcourt offense with effective full court pressure that made it hard for them to beat the 10 second rule and brought back memories of his 1987 Providence Final Four team and limited Villanova to just 4 of 25 on three–point shooting which allowed they to speed up the tempo and keep the Cats’ defense– which had been so good against Connecticut– on its heels. Nova was lucky to get 50, its lowest total of the Kyle Neptune era.
“It was embarrassing, that’s for sure” Villanova junior guard PJ Bamba, a New York kid who transferred in from Washington State, admitted. “They played harder than us. They punked us. It’s that simple. Enough said.”
St. John’s gave us a glimpse of what they could be at their best. They looked like a team making a case to be relevant on the national stage during Pitino’s first year on the Queens as they swept the season series from Villanova for the first team since 1992-93.
St. John’s played with a sense of urgency that had been missing under previous coaches. Villanova was a victim of their shock and awe. “They threw the first punch and we never recovered,” Kyle Neptune said.
This is a tale of two programs going in opposite directions. St. John’s is 36 in the Net today, four spots ahead of Villanova with a more reasonable upcoming schedule in terms of wins and losses.
They are 5-4 in league play, have blown out Villanova and been right there in losses to Creighton, Connecticut, Marquette. And they have a more agreeable second half of the league schedule with four games left against bottom feeders DePaul and Georgetown with five games left in the Garden and six likely Quad 1 opportunities.
Villanova is at a crossroads. They Cats are 11-8 and 4-4 in the Big East but two of those wins have been against DePaul and they have lost three of their last four in league play. They have to travel to Butler Saturday before hosting resurgent Marquette at the Pavillion Tuesday. Neptune is still working to figure out a workable rotation that maximizes chemistry.
Pitino has a better feel for coaching. I’ve seen him do it at Boston University, Providence, Kentucky, Louisville, Iona, winning two national championships at Kentucky and Louisville, taking those schools and Providence to Final Fours and all five to NCAA tournament appearances.
He is already in the Naismith Hall of Fame and one of the great coaching minds of my generation.
“It was a big game for us,” Pitino said. “I won’t bull bleep you guys. I told our guys after the loss to Marquette last Saturday if we wanted to get to the NCAAs, it was a must win. We needed it.
And they came through. We knew they needed to bring the energy and they met the challenge.”
Pitino has settled on a lineup, playing Iona transfer Dannis Jenkins at the point and plugging in Rj Luis Jr. at the two guard when Penn transfer Jordan Dingle missed two games with Covid. Dingle
came off the bench in his first game back and contributed 12 points. He has dependable fifth year senior Chis Ludlum from Harvard at the four and has found playing time for freshman talents Simeon Wilcher and Brady Dunlap.
If Villanova has anything going for it, it is experience. The Cats are the oldest team in the league and guys like Eric Dixon, who finished with 16 points, understand the Big East is a journey, filled with ups and downs. There is still a pathway to 18 wins no mattter what happens the next two games. and that should be enough for the Cats to claw their way into the bracket. But they will have to play better than they did in this disaster.
