With anticipation higher than usual, St. John’s gears up for Pitino’s first encore in Queens

St. John’s conducts drills during practice Tuesday, following Red Storm’s annual preseason media day. (Photo by Jaden Daly/Daly Dose Of Hoops) 

By Jaden Daly (@DalyDoseOfHoops) and Sara Kiernan (@SaraKiernan13)

NEW YORK — Rick Pitino was introduced as the head coach at St. John’s 19 months ago, a timeline that feels like an eternity outside college basketball circles, yet within the baselines, seems as though his grand entrance into the Red Storm’s annals just occurred yesterday.

The Hall of Fame tactician worked quickly to put to rest the underachieving and malcontent left in the wake of Mike Anderson, winning 20 games after massively overhauling his roster during the offseason. However, St. John’s omission from the NCAA Tournament and subsequent declination of a National Invitation Tournament bid left a sour aftertaste in the mouths of some on the corner of Union and Utopia.

Pitino has once again turned the page expeditiously, however, keeping a quintet of players on his roster last year and adding eight more — four each from the transfer portal and incoming freshman class — to a unit that has already been mentioned as a dark horse for what would be the Johnnies’ deepest March run in over a quarter-century.

“We don’t tell them how to deal with the expectations of the media,” Pitino said Tuesday at St. John’s media day. “Although we respect (the media), it’s really not one of our barometers. Our expectations are probably higher than everybody. We expect excellence in every phase of the game, and right now, we’re learning what excellence is all about. The landscape is so different today (that) you’re building a one-year culture.”

“We’re a really exciting group,” Zuby Ejiofor chimed in. “I feel like we have a lot more athleticism, a lot more size than we did last year. It’s gonna be exciting. We’re gonna be playing a lot faster than we did last year. It’s gonna be a good (year).”

Ejiofor was a unanimous choice on a players-only ballot to elect one of two captains on this year’s iteration of the Red Storm, with Seton Hall transfer Kadary Richmond being the other in what Pitino termed a near-unanimous decision. Ejiofor, the Kansas expatriate who backed up Joel Soriano last year, has been given free rein to impose his will after a breakout second half of last season. Through the early part of the fall, the hype surrounding him as a burgeoning breakout candidate has been validated, as the big man even demonstrated an improved perimeter game in Tuesday’s practice session.

“It makes me feel great,” Ejiofor said of being declared a team captain. “It’s a new title, new position for me this year. I have new expectations for me this year, higher expectations for me, my family, my teammates. I’m all for it.”

“I feel like as you progress throughout your career, the opportunity to evolve is there. I got to learn behind Joel Soriano, a great captain for us last season, and now I’ve embarked onto his role, so I know exactly what is expected of me this year. My coaches and my teammates have made me feel comfortable in this new role I’m in, so I’m really excited for this year.”

Pitino declined to reveal his full hand with regard to starters and reserves, but did mention that the trio of Ejiofor, Richmond and sophomore Simeon Wilcher would be the three likeliest to get the nod among the first five on the floor.

“I think probably with this basketball team, more than any team I’ve coached with the exception of 1996 Kentucky, I think you’ll see multiple starting lineups,” the coach shared. “I think you’ll always see Kadary starting, you’ll always see Zuby starting. More than likely, you’ll always see Sim starting, but that’s it. The rest of it is, flip a coin. To me, with this basketball team, who plays the most minutes will be the most valuable.”

“I think the guy who has the most upside on the team, the most growth on the team, is Vince (Iwuchukwu) from USC. He’s not where Kadary is, he’s not where Zuby is, but he has the most upside of anybody on the team, so that’s exciting. And so does Ruben (Prey). Ruben’s coming overseas — he’s 19 years of age, he’s just a freshman — he has a lot. Those two players have the most upside on the basketball team.”

A player with equal upside is Wilcher, the Roselle Catholic product who learned from Daniss Jenkins and Jordan Dingle last season. Pitino is notorious for playing with a three-guard attack, and his backcourt stats usually make their biggest jumps between their freshman and sophomore campaigns. Wilcher appears to be the next name in that elite lineage, as he will ply his wares alongside Richmond and Utah transfer Deivon Smith, who could very well be the best of the trio by season’s end.

“He’s learning very well,” said Richmond of his young teammate. “He had a great summer, he’s having a great preseason too right now. He’s able to score and create for others, so I think that’s a big thing. We’re all different in our own ways, we all do things differently, but I think it’ll mesh well. It’s been meshing well so far.”

Lost in the shuffle, in some aspects, has been former UMass wing RJ Luis, now entering his junior year and second go-round in Queens. Shelved by various injuries a year ago, the Miami native is closer to 100 percent than he was at this point last year, having recovered from a concussion suffered just over a week ago and eager to make up for lost time.

“I feel good, I feel great,” Luis proclaimed. “I feel like it’s gonna be a good year. I feel healthy. Sometimes last year, I had a cast on my hand, but I’m good. I feel like everything happens for a reason. I’m just blessed to be here. The main goal for me is just being healthy, and God willing, I’m gonna do that this year. I feel like the whole group connects well. We have a whole lot of younger guys, so the dynamic is a lot younger compared to last year. I feel like we’re very athletic, and it’s gonna be a fun and competitive year.”

“RJ’s had a tough summer and even a tough fall,” Pitino added before praising his pupil’s progress. He’s missed some time, but we’ve noticed a lot of improvement in RJ’s mental aspects of the game. His jump shot has improved, but where RJ needs to really improve is the mental aspects of the game. And he’s doing that right now.”

Sophomore forward Brady Dunlap and North Texas arrival Aaron Scott will also compete for minutes, as will freshmen Jaiden Glover and Greek import Lefteris Liotopoulos. All in all, from top to bottom, the Red Storm offers a multifaceted contingent that, with the right bounces and on-court synergy, could maintain the trend of Pitino’s marked improvement from year one to year two at the helm.

“We could do a lot of things,” Richmond said, assessing the sum of his and his teammates’ parts. “There’s a different dynamic. We could go three guards, two, we could switch it up. I feel like if we play at a fast pace and we take care of the ball well, we could play anybody in the country. I’d say a lot of winning. We could go deep into March, play into April, I’ll say that, just (from) how hard we work as a team and how together we are, day in and day out.”

“I don’t know if it’s going to be substantially better,” Pitino cautioned, “because we did win 20 games. A lot of people felt that if you look at all the measuring sticks, we were very highly ranked. We didn’t make the tournament, so obviously year two is very important. I don’t know if it’s substantial, but we definitely will get better. I think that’s a little bit misleading, because what happens when you take over a job is generally, you’re taking over a bad job because things have gone bad. Every situation was so bad that you improve by osmosis. In this case, we’re a better basketball team than we were last year right now in terms of depth, size and athleticism. Now we’ve gotta prove it on the court.”