IT WAS ALL AN ACT!
Pitino: St. John’s criticism was ‘staged’ so players would ‘wake the hell up’
The Red Storm are red hot ever since St. John’s coach Rick Pitino criticized his players with controversial candor that commanded national scrutiny.
Wednesday’s 82-59 victory at Butler marked the Johnnies’ third win in as many games since their back-breaking loss to Seton Hall on Feb. 18, after which Pitino declared this season, his first with St. John’s, the “most unenjoyable experience” of his five-decade coaching career.
“I know you guys don’t believe it, but what I said was all staged to try and get them to wake the hell up,” Pitino, 71, said after Wednesday’s win. “They woke up in a big way because they, right now, are playing great basketball.”
St. John’s looked much better in recent wins against Georgetown, No. 15 Creighton and Butler than it did over the previous five weeks, when it lost eight of 10 games. The last of those losses saw St. John’s blow a 19-point lead against Seton Hall, prompting Pitino to bemoan his team’s athleticism and toughness while mentioning multiple players by name.
Pitino apologized after his eyebrow-raising comments drew swift backlash, but his players seemed to respond. Sunday’s 80-66 victory over Creighton represented the Red Storm’s first ranked win of the season, while Wednesday’s 23-point blowout marked their most lopsided road triumph of Big East play.
“I know his statements were out of love,” senior guard Chris Ledlum said Wednesday of Pitino. “He loves us, he cares for us and just wants us to reach our full potential. He tells us all the time, so when he says those types of things, we just take it as tough love. We don’t take it personally.”
With Wednesday’s win, the Johnnies improved to 17-12 overall and 9-9 against the Big East, giving them hope of returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019.
They now sit 40th in the NCAA’s NET rankings, which use a four-quadrant system to value wins and losses through factors including an opponent’s winning percentage and where the game took place. Those metrics considered Wednesday’s victory to be the Red Storm’s third Quadrant 1 win compared to nine such losses.
For much of the season, St. John’s relied heavily on center Joel Soriano and point guard Daniss Jenkins as its primary scorers. Others stepped up during the team’s recent surge, including Jordan Dingle, who scored 22 points against Georgetown and 18 against Creighton, and Glenn Taylor Jr., who led St. John’s with 17 points Wednesday.
“We’ve become a total team,” Pitino said.
“You’re supposed to improve. … You’re supposed to really get better at the end of February leading into March. These guys, they’re fun to coach. We have a lot of laughs together, a lot of fun together, but they’re warriors.”
St. John’s closes out the regular season with the Big East’s two weakest teams, DePaul and Georgetown, before the conference tournament at Madison Square Garden, offering a few more opportunities to bolster the résumé for a March Madness bid.
“We’re doing a lot of great things,” Pitino said. “All I want to do is go into that Big East [Tournament] playing our best basketball and let the chips fall where they may.”