Men's College Hoops Spotlight: St. John's Getting Hot at Just the Right Time
📖 Full Retelling
A little more than a month ago, on Jan. 3, the post-game scene at Madison Square Garden was somber when St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino sat for a news conference, his trademark suit swapped for sweats. He placed his left hand on the hip of center Zuby Ejiofor, who had plopped down sullenly beside him on the dais, and compassionately dismissed the Red Storm’s star player. "You can go," Pitino said. "You don’t have to sit here." Pitino would face the impending inquisition alone. In that moment, following a surprising 77-71 defeat at the hands of Providence, a team now tied for 10th in the Big East standings, Pitino’s group was floundering. The result sunk St. John’s to 9-5 overall — equaling the team’s loss total from all of last season — following a lackluster showing in the non-conference portion of its schedule. Suddenly, a team that began the year ranked No. 5 in the AP Top 25 poll and had been picked to win the Big East was in a spot where "our backs are to the wall very early in the season," as Pitino said that afternoon. Pitino’s description felt legitimate, even when factoring in his penchant for recency bias across a coaching career that spans more than 50 years. His team ranked 130th nationally in effective field goal percentage, 173rd in turnover rate, 112th in 3-point field goal percentage and 310th in defensive rebound rate, according to Torvic. A transfer portal class deemed the best in the country by 247Sports wasn’t meshing the way people envisioned, forcing Pitino, desperate to offset the team's lack of a true point guard, to tinker with his starting lineup. Pitino understood that the Red Storm’s margin for error would be exceedingly slim amid a campaign when so many Big East teams were underperforming, further reducing the opportunities for résumé-boosting wins. Since then, St. John’s has reeled off 10 consecutive victories to vault back into the national championship discussion, checking in at No. 17 in the latest AP poll. It’s a run headlined by
📄 Original Source Content
A little more than a month ago, on Jan. 3, the post-game scene at Madison Square Garden was somber when St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino sat for a news conference, his trademark suit swapped for sweats. He placed his left hand on the hip of center Zuby Ejiofor, who had plopped down sullenly beside him on the dais, and compassionately dismissed the Red Storm’s star player. "You can go," Pitino said. "You don’t have to sit here." Pitino would face the impending inquisition alone. In that moment, following a surprising 77-71 defeat at the hands of Providence, a team now tied for 10th in the Big East standings, Pitino’s group was floundering. The result sunk St. John’s to 9-5 overall — equaling the team’s loss total from all of last season — following a lackluster showing in the non-conference portion of its schedule. Suddenly, a team that began the year ranked No. 5 in the AP Top 25 poll and had been picked to win the Big East was in a spot where "our backs are to the wall very early in the season," as Pitino said that afternoon. Pitino’s description felt legitimate, even when factoring in his penchant for recency bias across a coaching career that spans more than 50 years. His team ranked 130th nationally in effective field goal percentage, 173rd in turnover rate, 112th in 3-point field goal percentage and 310th in defensive rebound rate, according to Torvic. A transfer portal class deemed the best in the country by 247Sports wasn’t meshing the way people envisioned, forcing Pitino, desperate to offset the team's lack of a true point guard, to tinker with his starting lineup. Pitino understood that the Red Storm’s margin for error would be exceedingly slim amid a campaign when so many Big East teams were underperforming, further reducing the opportunities for résumé-boosting wins. Since then, St. John’s has reeled off 10 consecutive victories to vault back into the national championship discussion, checking in at No. 17 in the latest AP poll. It’s a run headlined by