Rick Pitino raises Big East championship trophy as St. John’s completed its defense of conference regular season and tournament titles, reaffirming the legendary coach’s vision of restoring Red Storm program to its past success. (Photo by St. John’s Athletics)
On that afternoon, shortly after 3 p.m., university president Rev. Brian Shanley and then-athletic director Mike Cragg formally announced the hire of Rick Pitino to lead the school’s men’s basketball program, a beleaguered brand name that had finally, once and for all, decided to get serious about the flagship sport on the corner of Union and Utopia. Pitino’s hire signified a long-awaited and much-clamored for change of direction. The once-every-few-years NCAA Tournament appearances that felt longer given the one step forward, two steps back results of the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s were no longer enough.
Nor should they have ever been at a program that bills and conducts itself as the face of its city. Swagger only goes so far sometimes. That and three dollars gets you a slice of pizza. But when you pair it with the gravitas of having won it all, and done so more than once, it makes a statement. And so it did even before Pitino was introduced to his new constituency. It reverberated louder, stronger, after he closed his introductory press conference the following day with the following words:
“St. John’s is one of the legendary names in college basketball. Has it fallen on tough times? Yes, it has. But now, we’re ready to fall on great times. Raise this roof up, because St. John’s is going to be back. I guarantee that.”
It took just 725 days for Pitino to deliver on his vow when he led St. John’s to its first Big East Conference championships — both the regular-season and tournament variety — in decades. The former had not been done since the days of Lou Carnesecca, the latter in a quarter-century. Fifty-two short weeks later, he has not only doubled down, but done something none of his other contemporaries in one of the greatest leagues in the sport ever could. Not Thompson, Carnesecca or Massimino. Not Calhoun, Boeheim, Wright, or even Hurley.
St. John’s became the first school in Big East history to win both championships two years in a row with its second conference tournament crown Saturday. And it was not so much the 72-52 thrashing of UConn that was the sticking point in how far the rebuild has come through three years in Queens, but rather the execution of a vision, one that has been tried and true, weathered and somewhat traditional, but still unrivaled.
“I think it’s just about understanding what the vision is when we came here, and Coach’s vision,” associate head coach Steve Masiello shared when asked if the process had gone according to plan to this point. “He set the tone for what it is, and we’re just following his plan with execution, obviously being at a high level, playing meaningful games in March and winning championships, and now making deep runs in the NCAA Tournament. So it’s all coming together, but there’s still work to be done and things we need to achieve.”
Occasionally, though, there can be some bumps in the road. After a loss, Pitino has been prone to convey a message through the media to motivate his troops externally. In February 2024, after St. John’s saw a 19-point first-half lead fall by the wayside against Seton Hall, the coach bemoaned his team’s lack of lateral quickness and called the season “the most unenjoyable experience of my life” at that point. The right buttons were pushed, however. St. John’s did not lose again until the Big East tournament, when it played UConn closer than anyone else in the postseason, losing by just five points to a Husky squad that repeated as national champions.
A similar inflection point arrived on January 3 of this year, when the Red Storm let an early-season conference game slip away against Providence. Although 9-5, and only 2-1 in Big East play, Pitino emphasized the magnitude of the setback, claiming his team’s back was against the wall. St. John’s has won 19 of its last 20 since then and enters the NCAA Tournament with as much momentum as any of the prohibitive favorites to win it. All of this can be traced to the big picture that was foreseen at the start of the year, one that is coming into focus in much the same vein as so many of his other works of art over a hall of fame career.
“It’s very consistent,” Masiello said of his boss’ grand scheme. “He hasn’t wavered. He saw a vision for us, he held us to it, held the players to it. And anyone who doubts Coach Pitino, you need to have your head examined.”
Pitino’s blueprint can look complicated, but when it is understood and fully conceptualized, it actually appears simple. Year one is a foundational season, outlining the culture of toughness and winning. Year two, statistically the biggest improvement for a Pitino program over the years, builds upon the hallmarks by combining incumbent talent with high-level recruits — or in this modern era, proven resumes from players in the transfer portal, a wrinkle that signifies his adaptability and insatiable hunger at the same time — to produce a high-level contender. Year three tends to yield the first major payoff, as Pitino’s teams have historically advanced to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament by then more often than not. Still, it takes a level of commitment from everyone, not just the players, as someone very close to the coach can confirm.
“He’s relentless,” Pitino’s son, Richard, now the head coach at St. John’s Big East rival, Xavier, said. “He wants to win and he pushes everybody. That’s the administration, that’s the coaches, that’s the players, that’s the boosters. You need a buy-in right now, and he gets everybody bought in. They’re reaping their rewards of buy-in, and that’s what it takes. And he does an amazing job of getting everybody bought in.”
That includes links to St. John’s past such as Mark Jackson, who was part of the 1985 Final Four team and later coached by Rick Pitino as a New York Knick. It encompasses the present, with Zuby Ejiofor, Bryce Hopkins and Dillon Mitchell leading perhaps the most physically imposing frontcourt in program history. And even if it cannot be completely read, it offers a partial glimpse of the future, which looks to promise more of the same as long as the ageless wonder of a head coach — 74 this coming September, but approaching his life’s work with the vigor and enthusiasm of a man half his age and the energy of a child with dreams as big as his own — stays around to see the next steps of his vision willed into reality.
“We brought it all back in three years,” Pitino said with the tangible pride of a proud father. “Not only with a high ranking, but the first time in the history of the school to win back-to-back regular season (and) back-to-back tournaments. But I told the guys in the locker room: I said the one thing I always want, every coach wants to see the team get better and peak at the right time, but I want to see the individuals get better.”
His son, who learned firsthand through playing the Red Storm twice this season and last year as well while still at New Mexico, validated not only the development, but also the steps of his father’s patented process.
“I think he’s done an amazing job,” Richard Pitino said. “It’s a perfect fit, for one. He’s got the right pieces around him…Zuby, Dillon Mitchell, Bryce. Those guys are great players. They fit him, this job fits him, and you’re seeing that it all works. It’s really cool to see unfold.”
A fan base that, once upon a time, may have sacrificed its collective spouses and first-born children for just one taste of consistent success now gets to experience Richard Pitino’s opinion of the job his father has done in real time, and does so at an all-you-can-eat buffet. The St. John’s fan base can be rabid, territorial, tribal. Disagree with it and you may bear the scars of those wounds for as long as it took to get a seat at the table it now occupies. But it can also be passionate, embracing, and appreciative. New York loves a winner, but loves even harder those who love it and its people in return.
A brand-name program, its reputation burnished by the city it calls home, announced its renaissance three years ago. It rebuilt its brand equity within months. Last year, St. John’s attested it was back.
This year, on this night, it affirmed it is here to stay.
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