Rick Pitino has rebuilt St. John's roster into his vision of winner
It is one of the most anticipated college basketball seasons in years at St. John’s and with good reason. Rick Pitino, the master rebuilder who turned listing Kentucky and Louisville programs into national powers, is now at the helm. And the Hall of Famer and former Knicks coach has overhauled the roster with the kind of talent his playing style demands, bringing in 10 transfers and two high school blue chippers.
“I get a chance now to walk around the streets of New York and the comments are awesome,” Pitino said Tuesday at the school’s on-campus media day. “From people driving in trucks just yelling ‘Go Johnnies!’ I never had that before. Back in the old days it would be ‘Go Knicks!’ obviously, but everybody's looking forward to it. There's an anticipation and excitement about us. Now, we have to prove it.”
There are some believers across the nation. The Associated Press released its preseason national rankings on Monday and while the Red Storm, 18-15 and 7-13 in the Big East last season under Mike Anderson, did not crack the Top 25, they did get 47 points and are just a few spots down.
Pitino pointed out that with St. John’s landing the top player from Penn in Jordan Dingle, who was the No. 2 scorer in the nation with a 24.3-point average, and the top player from Harvard in Chris Ledlum, who averaged 18.8 points and 8.5 rebounds, along with blue-chip high schoolers like Simeon Wilcher from Roselle Catholic (N.J.) and Brady Dunlap from Harvard-Westlake (California), the national speculation about the Storm is a natural.
“You put them all together, I don't think it warrants us getting any votes to be honest with you. I think it's based on speculation,” Pitino said. “We'll know Saturday whether those votes are warranted or not.”
The new-look St. John’s team plays its first opponent — a strong Rutgers team — in a Saturday exhibition at Carnesecca Arena. The NCAA is allowing the scrimmage to be open as ticket sales will raise money for the cause of childhood cancer.
“If we play Rutgers and it's a great game and we play great defense and we do things fundamentally sound, they could be correct,” Pitino said of poll voters. “But we won't know until Saturday. We're very happy about [the poll]. I wish we were ranked No. 1. That’s the ultimate goal.”
Pitino sought accomplished offensive players in recruiting and now is trying to blend a bunch of people who played go-to roles at their previous stops.
“I think that part of all of us coming here is that we wanted to be something more than ‘The Man,’ right?” said Dingle of Valley Stream. “If my biggest concern was about being the leading scorer and the face of a team, I probably would have remained where I was. But I think that we all came here because we wanted to collectively contribute to something bigger than ourselves.
“There are egos obviously when you deal with athletes, but there’s no one on this team that would jeopardize winning,” Dingle added. “He did a great job in recruiting people whose main focus was all about the team.”
“We have a guy that's been through it, a guy that's lived through the moments [and] has two national championships,” said big man Joel Soriano, who opted not to transfer when Pitino was hired. “He knows what it takes to win. I know no one is going to not listen to a guy that has that type of resume.
“We all have one goal: we all know we have to win,” Soriano added. “And we all know that we’re all not going to put up 30 points to win a game. We’re going to play together, putting our egos aside, and really just get to work.”
Notes & quotes: RJ Luis Jr. and Cruz Davis will not play Saturday. Both suffered broken hands in the past two weeks. Luis is out 3-to-6 weeks and Davis 2-to-4 weeks. Pitino said they are expected back in time to play in the Charleston Classic in South Carolina Nov. 16-19.
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.
