St. John's coach Rick Pitino reveals big plans for program
St. John's men's basketball coach Rick Pitino at a Knicks-Cavs playoff game at Madison Square Garden on April 23, 2023. Credit: Getty Images
When St. John’s introduced Rick Pitino as its new coach in March and the Hall of Famer declared “St. John’s will be back — in a big way,” the expectations for basketball success shot through the roof. Pitino needed only four seasons to get both Kentucky and Louisville to a Final Four.
A little more than six months in — and before the Red Storm has even played a game — so much more is growing about the program. During a wide-ranging Wednesday morning interview on WFAN’s “Boomer and Gio" show, Pitino revealed that the school is pursuing a plan to play the 2024-25 season opener against Duke at Arthur Ashe Stadium and that the school is going to break ground on a new $35 million basketball facility.
“We're working right now to play in Arthur Ashe Stadium, to play Duke opening game in Arthur Ashe Stadium,” Pitino said. “Then we’re going to play Alabama in the Garden . . . We’re going to play 10 games at the Garden [next season].”
“They're going to build a new practice facility — a $35 million practice facility,” he said. “They don't know how to do it land-wise [but] I know they're doing it. I'm not sure it'll be done during my tenure or not. They say ground is going to be broken this spring.”
Pitino, a New Yorker who grew up on Long Island, said that he already coveted the St. John’s post before his first sitdown with university president Rev. Brian J. Shanley. He recounted that during their conversation Shanley said that Pitino taking over at St. John’s had been divinely inspired and he replied, “I didn't have a calling from God, but I want the St John's job.”
“I wanted it because of a number of reasons,” Pitino said. “Look, I'm 71 . . . and it's my last opportunity to build something special . . . This was my last opportunity to take something that was so big in the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties and [rebuild] it back to where Louie [Carnesecca] had it. And we're starting up pretty strong.”
“Rick knows Big East basketball and is determined to take and keep the Red Storm program where we know it belongs,” Shanley said before Pitino was introduced.
The Red Storm, with a dozen new players that Pitino recruited from the NCAA transfer portal and top high school programs, could be nationally ranked when the preseason AP Top 25 comes out next month.
Only a small group of Storm players from last season were invited to return and Pitino suggested there were character issues. He elaborated on Wednesday when he said “it wasn't all the players, but a good number of them treated [former coach Mike Anderson] with disrespect and they weren't going to class and they just weren't getting St John's — the Vincentian people are all about humility, all about doing it the right way.”
“They weren't doing it the right way,” Pitino said. “So I told them, ‘Look, it's not going to work because you have to go to class. We don't miss class and we are going to treat people with great respect . . . We're going to build something special and you don't fit in.' ”
He and his staff then recruited the current team from across the country. Now he spends four hours each day doing small morning workouts with groups of players to help them develop skills that will take them to the NBA or other professional leagues, he said. And that’s before the team holds its afternoon practices.
“I am more passionate today than I was when I was 30 coaching the Knicks because I know my window is closing,” Pitino said.
Pitino and his staff keep statistics on every practice and send them to the players each day along with their personal grades for effort and execution. Effort is rated low-, mid- or high-motor and the coach added that those ratings, which started with a lot of "low-motor" grades, are climbing.
“If I can get to the point where we have 12 or 13 guys with a high motor,” Pitino said, “then we're going to win.”
He also spends an estimated five to seven days each month fundraising, getting St. John’s supporters to give money to the collectives that retain the name, image and likeness (NIL) services of players and pay them for it. The school is bringing in bankers to lecture players on investing.
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.
