Call it what you will. A miracle. The process. The remarkable ability of Rick Pitino to build college basketball programs. Each would be an apt characterization of St. John’s and their men’s basketball team.
After essentially being a middling and idling operation for the better part of the two decades, failing to make it past the second round of the NCAA tournament since 1999 in only five appearances, the Red Storm have become a tsunami this season. They are 26-4 and play their final regular season game Saturday against Marquette on the road, assured their first bid to the field of 68 since 2019.
How they achieved the dramatic turnaround is only part of a story that still has many more scenes to be written. Consider their current status as a screenplay draft and far from the finished movie. The No. 6-ranked men’s team in Division I and the Big East Conference’s regular season champion has been a vessel that has transported enthusiasm of New York City sports fans from their Jamaica, Queens, campus across the five boroughs.
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In only the second season of the Pitino era, the Red Storm are once again packing Madison Square Garden, reminiscent of the early to mid 1980s. While this iteration of players, with the exception of Brooklyn native Kadary Richmond, are not homegrown ballers as were St. John’s icons Chris Mullin, Walter Berry, Mark Jackson, Kevin Williams, Mike Moses and others that grew up on the blacktops of the city, they have endeared themselves to followers and supporters of the team just the same. Now some of the names are RJ Luis Jr. from Miami, Florida, Zuby Ejiofor from Garland, Texas, Simeon Wilcher from Plainfield, New Jersey, and Deivon Smith from Decatur, Georgia.
Although the Red Storm’s head coach, Rick Pitino, doesn’t have deep roots planted at the university as did the great Lou Carnesecca — a St. John’s grad who was on the bench first as an assistant (1958-65) and then two separate stints as the head coach (1965-70, 1973-72) — the New York City-born and Bayville, Long Island-raised University of Massachusetts alumnus carries the spirit of Little Louie, who passed away at the age of 99 last November.
After defeating Seton Hall 71-61 at the Garden on Saturday to clinch the program’s first Big East regular season title since the 1985 Carnesecca-led squad, the 72-year-old Pitino, a 2013 inductee, paid tribute to his fellow (1992) Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame member.
“Lou means a lot to a lot of people,” he said. “I coached against him. He was the gentleman of gentlemen, a fierce competitor, [and a] great basketball coach, so, we’re real proud of the fact that in the year that he passed, because he led a great life, we can honor him with this championship.”
