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5 questions with St. John’s Rick Pitino

Rick Pitino is attempting to lead St. John’s back to the NCAA Tournament. After narrowly missing March Madness last season, the Hall-of-Fame head coach has his sights set on a significant jump in his second year with the Red Storm. I caught up with Pitino on Wednesday in Queens to discuss last season, chasing UConn, and what has to happen for St. John’s be a major factor in 2024-25.

Jon Rothstein: What was the emotional experience like for you from the end of the UConn game in the Big East Tournament to the end of Selection Sunday when you found out that you wouldn’t be playing in the NCAA Tournament?

Rick Pitino: We thought we were in. The only reason I thought that we were in was that we were 32nd in the NET and our strength of schedule was very good. When we didn’t get in, I wasn’t griping that we weren’t in — I was more concerned with what was being used for criteria to get in the NCAA Tournament. I called people on the selection committee and they said that there was basically 12 independent contractors using their own methods to decide who gets in. That’s where it’s incorrect. We need to know exactly what criteria is being used for teams to make the NCAA Tournament. We need know how to schedule. We need to know how much that we need to beat teams by so that this doesn’t happen again to not only us, but teams like Seton Hall and Providence who also just missed out on the NCAA Tournament.

Rothstein: Your schedule is also significantly more difficult early on this season with games against New Mexico, Kansas State (Big East-Big 12 Battle), Georgia (Bahamas), and an early season tournament in the Bahamas with Baylor, Tennessee, and Virginia. How important is it to convey to your team that what happens in November and December is equally as important as what happens after that?

Pitino: Very much so. We weren’t ready in the beginning of last season and that was displayed against Boston College, Dayton, and Michigan. We were ready at the end the year. Our goal this year is to be ready from the first game on.

Rothstein: For much of your career when you were at Kentucky, everyone was chasing you. What it is like now to be chasing a program like UConn that’s separated itself from the rest of college basketball?

Pitino: I think it’s great. Having UConn in the Big East as back-to-back national champions has set the standard. For the rest of us to catch up to them, it’s very challenging. But they’re the standard. They have great guards. They have great big men. Their players get drafted. We all want to catch up to them. We think that we made great strides not to be them, but to be closer to the top.

Rothstein: Two years ago when you first got to St. John’s, you put together a roster quickly out of necessity. How substantial is the difference in the overall ceiling of this roster compared to the one that you had last season?

Pitino: That’s why we didn’t want to play in the Postseason NIT. We were very banged up with injuries. We wanted to do our homework because we just took who we could get in April of the first year that we were here. This year, we wanted to evaluate who we wanted and how he fit in our style of play. Everything worked out great. This team is deep, tall, and athletic. Now, they just need to learn to play together. It’s as talented as any team that I had when I was at Louisville. There’s three great players — Kadary Richmond (Seton Hall), Deivon Smith (Utah), and Simeon Wilcher — in our backcourt and they’re all different. Kadary is a 6-6 killer and a great passer. Deivon is Peyton Siva on steroids and Sim is a great scorer who does it all. They have great size, great speed, and great athleticism. Kadary and Deivon are great rebounders, especially on the offensive end. Deivon is 6-feet tall and had five triple-doubles last season in only half a year at Utah.

Rothstein: What has to happen for this team to not just make the NCAA Tournament next season, but to have a chance to advance once it gets there?

Pitino: The team has to come together. All of the coaches in college basketball today — unless you’re UConn last year when it had a number of players returning — is dealing with the same thing. We have to make sure that they get to know each other and mesh early in the season. We weren’t ready early in the season last year. We have to be ready early in the season this year because of the schedule that we’re playing.

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