RISING STORM
Johnnies need to bond at superspeed for season of much higher expectations
“Go Johnnies.”
“Go Johnnies.”
“Go Johnnies.”
Rick Pitino hears the chants when he walks around the city. He heard it on his trip this weekend to the Saratoga Race Course.
St. John’s fans are ready for the season, more than three months before Pitino coaches his first game for his new school. A strong offseason that has led several experts to install the Red Storm as a preseason top-25 team has the fan base dreaming big after the program hired the Hall of Fame coach just over four months ago.
“I think it’s necessary for St. John’s to get as much hype as possible, because they’ve been so dormant,” the 70-year-old Pitino told The Post in a sit-down interview on Monday. “I love the expected excitement that’s going to happen.”
Now comes the hard part: Living up to expectations. The process began roughly five weeks ago with offseason workouts that will wrap up in 10 days.
All but one member of Pitino’s huge 11-man recruiting class has taken part in those, projected starting point guard Daniss Jenkins. The Iona University transfer is finishing up his undergraduate degree, and will arrive by the end of August, although he has been around his new teammates frequently. The latest addition, Harvard grad transfer and likely starting power forward Chris Ledlum, took part in his first workout on Monday.
“It’s definitely different, definitely got a different aura around it,” said standout center Joel Soriano, the team’s lone returning contributor. “Everything is a lot more, I would say, demanding. We’re way more focused. It’s a lot being asked of us right now, but that would be anywhere you would be at. … A lot more trying to be perfect at things, trying to get things as quickly as possible.”
Getting everyone on the same page feels like the biggest challenge for Pitino. There are two freshmen and nine transfers — three of them, Jenkins, Cruz Davis and Sadiku Ibine Ayo, did play for Pitino last season at Iona — that have to adjust to a new coach, new surroundings and new teammates.
The early returns have been positive. Pitino believes his staff did well in recruiting the right kind of people, hard-working and selfless players that fit his demanding style. Who will attack summer workouts with the same passion as Pitino, who was described by top guard transfer Jordan Dingle as “the most competitive person in the gym.” Obviously, this is still the honeymoon phase. The real tests arrive in the winter, when playing time is doled out and typical struggles arise.
Soriano, a high-character, affable big man, has been the go-to guy for most of his new teammates trying to get adjusted to the area. The team regularly hangs out away from the court, sometimes at his off-campus apartment to play video games together. Pitino took everyone to a recent Mets game and had a team dinner planned Monday night. Everyone but the seniors will live on campus this year.
Some teams have known each other for years. St. John’s has to speed up the familiarity phase.
“We’re definitely hanging out more as a group since we’ve been here,” Soriano said. “We went to a water park. We go out to eat. We hang out a lot. We build that bond off the court and build that trust, it’s going to translate on the court.”
Of course, talent wins, and St. John’s believes it has plenty of it.
Ask a member of the coaching staff the Johnnies’ best player, and you will get a different answer from almost everyone.
Kansas transfer Zuby Ejiofor has at times gotten the better of Soriano, according to Pitino. The legendary coach raved about the potential of RJ Luis, a 6-foot-7 rising sophomore wing who was an Atlantic 10 All-Rookie team selection in his lone year of college at Massachusetts. Ejiofor, another soon-to-be sophomore, will likely be the first forward off the bench while Luis is battling Glenn Taylor Jr. and Nahiem Alleyne, respective transfers from Oregon State and Connecticut, to be the guy at the 3. Ultimately, the strength of the team may be the backcourt of Dingle, Jenkins and top-35 freshman Simeon Wilcher.
“I’ve had 12 players [in workouts] and all 12 players are very good,” Pitino said. “Now we have to get three or four of them to become great.”
There is significant hype, in part because of Pitino, but also the caliber of players he has brought in. The expectations of some fans will be unrealistic for a brand new team that last won an NCAA Tournament game in 2000. But Pitino doesn’t seem bothered by it.
“That’s OK, though, unrealistic expectations become extraordinary effort,” he said. “I think that kind of pressure is good pressure.”