Rick Pitino's mission: Bring good old days back to St. John's
St. John's head coach Rick Pitino gestures against Pace during the second half of an NCAA exhibition men's basketball game at Carnesecca Arena on Sunday, Oct. 29, 2023. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Rick Pitino was hired in 1985 to coach a Providence men’s basketball program that finished six of the previous seven seasons with a losing record. He took the Friars to the Final Four in his second season.
Pitino was hired in 1989 to coach a Kentucky program riven by scandal. He took it to the Final Four in his fourth season.
In 2001, Pitino was hired to coach a Louisville program that hadn’t reached the Final Four since winning the 1986 national championship. He had the Cardinals back on college basketball’s biggest stage in his fourth season.
When it signed Pitino to a six-year contract in March to take over a program in a steady quarter-century decline, St. John’s was declaring, to use basketball terms, “we’ve got next.”
The master architect immediately began drawing blueprints by remaking the Red Storm roster with a dozen new players. On Tuesday, St. John’s will open the season by hosting Stony Brook at 7 p.m. at Carnesecca Arena.
St. John’s is special to Pitino, who was born in Manhattan and grew up on Long Island. He remembers when the Red Storm stood among the college basketball elite and drew fans from all over the area. It’s a bold vision for a program that has been to only three NCAA Tournaments in the past 20 years and last won an NCAA Tournament game in 2000.
“The brand grows with you when you win,” Pitino said. “[With] St. John's, I would say probably about 50% of the people that come to games are not St. John's graduates. They’re people like me growing up who just rooted for St. John's back in the '60s and '70s and '80s. They’re just New York college basketball fans . . . We want Long Island, all the boroughs and Westchester and build that brand back throughout New York.
“St John's has a special name in the '60s, '70s and '80s and a fabulous coach in Lou Carnesecca who brought them to the Final Four. I’ve been fortunate to be part of three different schools that have gone to a Final Four and I would not only love to get St. John’s to The Dance but to get into the hunt for a Final Four.”
The 2023-24 version of the Red Storm draws players from all over the country — 10 are transfers from eight different colleges and two are blue-chip freshmen — but all have seemed to embrace his mission.
Asked what the team can do this season, Oregon State transfer Glenn Taylor Jr. replied, “I think this team is going to bring winning back to St. John’s.”
“I’ve talked to a lot of people who were around when St. John’s was really good and they say there’s nothing like it,” said Penn transfer and Valley Stream product Jordan Dingle. “They said St. John’s can create a lot of buzz in this city and I want to see it and be part of bringing it back.”
This rebuilding project is different from the others undertaken by Pitino because so much has changed about the college basketball landscape, especially the athletes' ability to change schools and be eligible immediately. He said that to win soon, he needed experienced players. Pitino has Joel Soriano, Daniss Jenkins, Chris Ledlum and Nahiem Alleyne as four of the starting five for the opener against Stony Brook, and Ledlum, Alleyne, Jenkins, Soriano and Dingle are all seniors or grad students.
The biggest challenge facing Pitino and his vision is getting a collection of players that hadn’t played together before now to jell while learning to play his offensive and defensive systems.
“I think we're going to get better and better,” Pitino said . “This is a big year for us because the brand is long gone since Looie left. The brand needs to be brought back and the only thing that brings that . . . is winning.”
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.
