St. John's Rick Pitino doesn't expect unionization across college basketball
St. John's head coach Rick Pitino during the second half of their Big East men’s basketball game against the DePaul Blue Demons at Wintrust Arena on Tuesday, March 5, 2024 in Chicago. Credit: John Konstantaras Photo/John Konstantaras
Rick Pitino has had a lot to say this season about the way college basketball has changed with the introduction of NIL money and virtually unrestricted transfers.
Although the St. John’s coach made it no secret that he believes better rules and regulations are required, he was very complimentary of the Dartmouth men’s basketball team voting to unionize on Tuesday. Even though he doesn’t believe it will start a trend.
“See, [Ivy League players] are non-scholarship people so it’s smart for the Ivy League to unionize,” Pitino said at Tuesday’s postgame news conference following the Red Storm’s 104-77 Big East win at DePaul. “The rest of the country would never go for that.”
Pitino said that players in major conferences like the Big East wouldn’t unionize and likened it to them taking “a pay cut.”
“It would be like minimum wage for them then, so I guarantee you that’s not going to fly in all the major conferences,” Pitino said.
“These guys are free agents — they want to be free agents,” Pitino said of major conference basketball players. “They don’t want to be unionized. I can assure you that’s not going to happen anyplace else.”
Playing through it
Chris Ledlum’s always stood out on the Storm because he plays with such effort that it’s noticeable. Now he’s also getting noticed because he’s getting better results and St. John’s is winning.
In the win over DePaul, he had 19 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three steals. In the Storm’s four-game winning streak, he is averaging 12 points and 5.5 rebounds.
And the Brooklyn product has been making the contributions despite a nagging ankle injury, the same one that kept him out of the December win over Hofstra.
“He’s been hurt the whole year,” Pitino said. “And I’ll say this: 95% of people would not play with how banged up he’s been.”
Ledlum played high school football and is using a lesson he learned at that time.
“If I can play, I’m going to play at any time,” Ledlum said. “As a young football player, I learned there’s a difference between being injured and being hurt. When you’re hurt, you got to play.”
Sticking together
This is Pitino’s first season at St. John’s and it started with bringing in 12 new players. But he looks at the better teams in the Big East and sees their formula for success lies in keeping a group of players together in the program.
“That’s the reason Marquette is so good — those guys have been together,” Pitino said. “Connecticut has [some who] played together.”
Seton Hall also has had success by keeping its core of stars together.
Ledlum said that the Storm’s recent success has come with players getting used to playing together.
“I now know where and when to get Jordan [Dingle] the ball,” he said. “Same thing with Daniss [Jenkins].”
“The teams that are really going to be good and the teams that stick together keep a core group together,” Pitino said. “A lot of teams can’t do that — it’s a different world.”
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.