St. John's Rick Pitino clearly lays out role for Nahiem Alleyne
St. John's head coach Rick Pitino shakes with Nahiem Alleyne during an exhibition game against Rutgers benefitting the Dick Vitale Pediatric Cancer Research Fund on Saturday, October 21, 2023. Credit: Dawn McCormick
St. John’s swingman Nahiem Alleyne was part of Connecticut’s 2023 national championship team. He played in every game, mostly as a role player off the bench. What he will be for Rick Pitino and the Red Storm is still taking shape, but one thing is for certain: They need more from him than he gave to the Huskies, and Alleyne knows it.
Alleyne may have had a breakthrough with Pitino during the Charleston Classic in South Carolina last weekend. And it started with the player’s heartfelt apology.
After seeing his playing time dwindle across three games in the week, Alleyne made a huge contribution in Sunday’s 91-82 win over Utah. The 6-4 grad student came off the bench to play 17 minutes and had 10 points, three assists, a steal and no turnovers.
He had played only nine minutes in Friday’s tournament semifinal loss to Dayton, and through four games, he had an aggregate three rebounds, one steal and zero assists. When asked about his diminished role last Saturday, Pitino gave a detailed explanation.
“Look at the stats of him at Connecticut as well as now, they're pretty similar,” Pitino said. “Low [shooting] percentage from the field. Why? [He] doesn't get to the rim. Not overly athletic. Not a two-point shooter, [he’s] a.three-point shooter. Probably they equate. If you look, he averaged less than one assist per game in 18 minutes per game at Connecticut. So unless he's on fire, he's not giving you assists, he’s not giving you steals, he’s not giving you rebounds.”
In the run-up to the Utah game, Alleyne sought Pitino out.
“Naheem said, ‘Coach, can I meet with you?' So I said here it comes: He’s going to want to know how to get more minutes and how to get back into the lineup and so on,” Pitino said after the win over Utah. “He just said, ‘Coach, I just want to apologize for the way I was playing. I didn't come in to play like that. That's all I want to say.’ [He] never talked about getting back into the lineup and he was a big factor tonight playing at small forward.
“I said, ‘All I want you to do, son, is create some assists, get some rebounds. I know you can score a basketball.’ And tonight he gives us a big lift. He gets three assists, zero turnovers, one steal. He just did a lot of good things.”
Asked why he sought Pitino out, Alleyne replied: “I just knew that I wasn’t playing at the level that I know I want to play at. He knows that as well.”
Then he told the Hall of Fame coach: “I’ll be ready no matter when you call my name. Doesn’t matter if it’s one minute, two minutes, I’ll be ready to go.”
As Pitino has tried to get a collection of offense-minded players to make defense their priority, he often has praised Alleyne. He said he ranks first among the guards at defending the perimeter. And he used him as an example of a player who knows what it takes to win at a high level in a group in which few have.
Still, Pitino needed contributions on both ends of the court, and not necessarily in terms of scoring on offense. Alleyne looked like a player who understood that in the Red Storm’s win over the Utes.
“I've got a lot of confidence in him,” Pitino said. “He's just got to learn to do more things than shoot.”
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.
