Rick Pitino puts discipline of Deivon Smith into hands of his St. John's teammates
St. John's guard Deivon Smith against New Mexico on Nov. 17, 2024. Credit: AP/Pamela Smith
The end of St. John’s disappointing three-game trip to the Bahamas last week included a three-point loss to unranked Georgia and issues about the conduct of Deivon Smith during and after the contest.
The guard reacted poorly to being subbed out with 13:18 to play and did not return. Coach Rick Pitino said the issue lingered even after the final buzzer.
“After the game and during the game, he made some poor decisions,” Pitino said.
“He didn’t live up to the standards of a ‘St John’s Man’ [and] a ‘St. John’s Man’ has to be a selfless man — it’s what the school is all about,” Pitino added. “Every person on this basketball team is to act in a selfless manner. He did not, and he has to pay the consequences for that.”
But Pitino said he will not hand out the discipline. He has put that responsibility on the team and its captains.
“It’s in the team’s hands right now and they’re handling it,” he said. “I told them, your locker room has to be great . . . [so] you handle any problems off the court. Make sure that they don’t run into your ability to win.”
Smith has apologized to Pitino and his teammates.
“We talked to him and we’re fine,” guard Simeon Wilcher said. “He apologized about what happened that day. He’s our brother and . . . [we’ll] handle it inside.”
Asked if this episode with Smith will affect his minutes or how he is deployed in games, Pitino said it will not, but he later added, “He’s serving a penalty, without question.”
More could be revealed in Saturday’s 5 p.m. non-conference matchup against Harvard (2-5) at Carnesecca Arena, where the Red Storm (5-2) will be seeking to turn the page on the 1-2 excursion to the Caribbean that cost them the No. 22 ranking they brought into it.
In talking about the events of the trip, Pitino actually sounded more disappointed about last Thursday’s 99-98 double-overtime loss to then-No. 13 Baylor in a Baha Mar Hoops Championship semifinal. The Red Storm led by 18 in the first half, but the Bears eked out the win when Zuby Ejiofor missed a pair of free throws with 4.1 seconds left and Jeremy Roach sank a three-pointer at the buzzer.
Replays showed that the clock started late after the missed free throws, likely giving Baylor more time to get off the winning shot.
“We should be 6-1 and feeling great, but the Baylor thing is stuck in our throats, and we all have a sore throat thinking about it,” Pitino said. “I think it’s going to be there the whole season.”
“The Baylor game was just one of our better opportunities,” Wilcher said. “It’s an opportunity that we came up short on, but I feel like every game is an opportunity.”
This conduct episode with Smith seems more serious than the one with RJ Luis Jr. — who punted a ball into the stands after fouling out against Fordham — though Pitino was more outspoken about that one. For that, Pitino had Luis put in extra workouts. Smith’s fate is being determined by his teammates.
Notes & quotes: Brady Dunlap received a cortisone injection to treat a nagging hip injury that has limited him to 32 minutes over the Red Storm’s previous three games. Pitino said that even though he missed two practices, he will be a player for St. John’s on Saturday.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.