Kadary Richmond (1) drives past Georgetown’s Malik Mack as St. John’s comes back from 14 points down to defeat Hoyas Tuesday at Madison Square Garden. (Photo by St. John’s Athletics)
NEW YORK — The significant uptick in performance of a Rick Pitino team from its first year to its second is so profoundly time-tested that one of his current players acknowledged it.
Following St. John’s win over Villanova this past Saturday, RJ Luis—fresh off a 30-point, 10-rebound masterpiece that night—acknowledged both the black-and-white win improvements as well as the analytical climbs that his coach has engineered at every stop in his own career.
Three days later, the Red Storm, down 14 points early in the second half against a scrappy Georgetown team, added to the numbers. St. John’s used a 17-2 run shortly after halftime to negate that deficit, then after the Hoyas had retaken the lead, fired right back with a 10-2 spurt to seize it again for good. It was as if the Johnnies cared not about the final margin or the number of points on the board, merely looking to satisfy one objective.
“The second year is understanding the desire to win, how important it is winning,” Pitino expounded after his roster sealed a 63-58 victory in a game that harkened back to the battles that brought the Big East to college basketball’s forefront. “At the end of last year, we were a great basketball team, I thought we were a Top 10 team in the nation last year, but it takes time to make winning so important to you. And (Tuesday), winning was more important than any individual achievement because nobody played well. Nobody played well, but that’s the message of the second year, that winning matters more than anything else.”
“Some nights, if you don’t have it and you can still win, the word that sticks out more than anything is fortitude. You have the fortitude to win the game, and they made big plays. They all had the fortitude. They refused to lose the game. I always say this: Players can make coaches look good or players can make coaches look bad, and they’re making us as a coaching staff look good.”
Georgetown head coach Ed Cooley, irked by his team’s blown lead in the Hoyas’ third consecutive loss, opened a fiery postgame press conference by lauding St. John’s, and sending a message to those who have not ranked the Red Storm among the Top 25, a room the Johnnies will almost assuredly enter next week as long as they can beat Seton Hall on Saturday.
“For St. John’s not to be ranked, first and foremost, let’s talk about that,” Cooley began. “I don’t know who some of these voters are, I don’t know who has a vote, but you’re blind. Wake up, you’re blind. That’s one of the best teams we’ve played all year, I don’t know if there’s a close second. This team is really, really good. They have some dynamite players, they defend at an elite level, they try to speed you up, very, very good. So for everybody that’s behind that iron mic that has a vote, wake your ass up.”
Speaking of waking up, one player who did that Tuesday was Kadary Richmond. Pressed into primary point guard duty as Deivon Smith sat out while he rehabs a shoulder contusion, the Seton Hall transfer imposed his will on the game is his usual quietly dominant fashion. Richmond scored only 10 points, but logged eight of St. John’s 13 assists as he continues to adjust from being the alpha across the Hudson last season to being a talented piece that furthers a much more intricate puzzle in the Big Apple.
“We all know what the big goal is, to get on Broadway,” he said Tuesday. “That’s the message preached every day, so just having that will when we go out there—down 10, down however much—just come back and win, keep playing hard and stay together. We just have the desire to win, the will to win, and I feel like that’s a big thing here.”
“He’s a little underappreciated,” Pitino said of his fifth-year senior. “He owns up to every mistake he makes, every mistake. He’s just got a superb attitude. If he gets beat back door, he says, ‘my fault’ right away, and he’s got a great will to win. It wasn’t our best night, it wasn’t a Rembrandt, but they have a strong desire to win. And as a coach, I can’t appreciate anything more than that.”
After its latest second-half comeback, St. John’s has now outscored opposing teams over the final 20 minutes by 170 points, second only to Duke among Power 5 programs. The timely surges in games have only underscored the win-at-all-cost mentality among the Red Storm, which has made its 15-3 record and 6-1 start to Big East play all the more impressive.
“We all want to win,” sophomore guard Simeon Wilcher declared. “When we have a collective of guys who just want to win and will do whatever just to win, a lot of great things can happen. We just used what we’ve been working on all year and put it into fruition, to be honest.”
“Being in New York City and playing well and winning, you kind of get the whole New York City to back you, and that’s kind of what’s happening right now. We’re extremely excited for the rest of the season just to see what we could do. I feel like we have a really tough and really talented group of guys, and I feel like throughout the rest of the year, we’re just gonna continue to get better.”
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