Rick Pitino after St. John's collapse vs. Seton Hall: 'Most unenjoyable' season of his career
St. John's head coach Rick Pitino talks to center Joel Soriano in the second half of an NCAA Big East men's basketball game against the Seton Hall Pirates at UBS Arena on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2024. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
You could see it in the way that St. John’s let a 19-point lead get away so easily. And in how the Red Storm showed little fight to get it back. And in the words coach Rick Pitino used after it was over — sometimes using the past tense to discuss the season and calling 2023-24 “the most unenjoyable experience of my lifetime.”
St. John’s appeared to hit rock bottom in the second half of its must-win Big East game against Seton Hall on Sunday. The Red Storm played arguably their worst half of the season and suffered a 68-62 loss before 9,584 at UBS Arena. They have lost eight of their last 10 games, and any hope of achieving the goal of returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019 appears all but lost.
“I’m disappointed,” a resigned-sounding Pitino said. “I don’t want to say the wrong things, but I am really disappointed in my team. In some of the close games, we missed free throws, and that was the reason we lost. Tonight, it was just a lack of toughness.
“I’ve enjoyed every single minute of every single season I’ve coached, with the exception of this one.’’
The Red Storm (14-12, 6-9) played the first 16 minutes with the passion and urgency of a team trying to pad their NCAA Tournament resume. They made hustle plays, took advantage of the Pirates’ lackluster shooting and built a 38-19 lead.
Seton Hall coach Shaheen Holloway got whistled for a technical foul while objecting to a charging call on Kadary Richmond late in the half, and then everything started to change.
The Pirates (17-9, 10-5) closed the first half with a 10-3 run to get within 41-29 and opened the second half with an 18-4 burst (meanwhile, St. John’s shot 1-for-15 and had five turnovers). Seton Hall grabbed its first lead at 47-45 on Al-Amir Dawes’ transition layup with 8:13 left.
St. John’s led for only eight more seconds — at 53-52 on Daniss Jenkins’ step-back three-pointer with 5:22 left — and Seton Hall responded with nine unanswered points. Even the St. John’s players looked as if they’d given up hope as Seton Hall scored on seven of its final 10 possessions.
St. John’s scored only 21 points and shot 24.2% from the floor, including 3-for-18 on three-pointers, in the second half.
Holloway called his team’s first 16 minutes “soft” and added, “I was able to get their attention with the tech to show them I was fighting for them.”
The 28-7 run that bridged the halves was oddly reminiscent of the first meeting between the teams at Prudential Center, a 15-point blowout win by Seton Hall. In that one, the Pirates scored 28 unanswered points in a stretch covering the two halves to put the Red Storm away.
“We just lack toughness . . . it’s all the toughness things that are the reason we give up leads,” Pitino said.
Jenkins had 17 points and six assists and Joel Soriano had 13 points (only two after halftime) and 12 rebounds to lead the Red Storm. Dawes had 19 points and Richmond added 18 for the Pirates.
After St. John’s lost by three at Providence on Tuesday, Pitino was upbeat and spoke about winning the final six regular-season games. His tone was very different after Sunday’s game.
“I just haven’t showed you this: I’ve been disappointed almost every game with this team in the lack of toughness,” Pitino said. “We beat Utah and all we did was shoot the ball well. We didn’t play well — we shot the ball well . . . I’ve been disappointed the entire year.’’
He added: “I’ve been .500 in the first year [at other programs], but I’ve always enjoyed the first year. And I’m not going to lie to you: This has been the most unenjoyable experience of my lifetime.”
Pitino was hired away from Iona in March and remade the entire St. John’s roster with a dozen new players. But he said what he saw on the court didn’t match his expectations.
“We kind of lost this season with the way we recruited,” he said. “We recruited the antithesis of the way I coach — with speed, quickness, fundamentals, strength and toughness — and we did not do that. It’s a good group, they try very hard, they’re just not that tough.”
Asked if he regretted taking the St. John’s position, he replied, “No, not at all, it’s not St. John’s. It’s my team.”
To make the NCAA Tournament, the Red Storm likely will have to win out and add some victories in the conference tournament, if not win it all.
“I think they’re unathletic . . . I don’t think they’re going to pick it up in the next week,” Pitino said. “I’m hoping we can finish over .500 on the season and then we’ll see what happens [in the conference tournament].”
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.
