NEW YORK-- Rick Pitino called his St. John’s shot six years ago while coaching in Greece.
St. John’s had just parted ways with coach Chris Mullin, who could not replicate his success as a player while serving as the school’s coach. St. John’s was targeting Bobby Hurley to replace Mullin, but Pitino, coaching Panathinaikos in Greece, had other ideas.
“I would bring St. John’s to the Elite level not seen since Louie [Carnesecca] roamed the sidelines,” Pitino, now 72, texted me in April 2019.
St. John’s ended up hiring Mike Anderson and Pitino’s dream of restoring St. John’s to glory would have to wait six years.
But it finally crested on Saturday afternoon when the Red Storm beat Seton Hall, 71-61, to clinch the program’s first outright Big East regular-season championship since Mullin and Walter Berry starred in 1985.
“We’re real proud of the fact, because [Carnesecca] led a great life, that we can honor him with this championship,” Pitino, grinning ear-to-ear, said in the Garden press room after securing the No. 1 seed in the Big East Tournament and likely his first Big East Coach of the Year honors.
Standing off to the side was St. John’s President Father Brian Shanley, who hired Pitino in 2023 in part based upon the recommendation of former Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese.
Pitino had returned from Greece and resurrected his career at Iona, leading the Gaels to two NCAA Tournament appearances in three years at the school. When he was exonerated by the IAFP in November 2022 after being fired by Louisville in 2017 following several strikes, including an alleged pay-for-play scandal, bigger schools like St. John’s were free and clear to hire him without reservations.
“The only person to dig you out of that and give you a great basketball coach and win is Rick,” Tranghese told Shanley, per John Fanta of Fox Sports. “We need to just talk about Rick and forget about everybody else.”
Father Shanley, who came to St. John’s from Providence, did hire Pitino, but even he has been stunned at how quickly the coach -- who has a long history of making great strides in Year 2 at every stop he’s been at -- made St. John’s a winner again.
“This happened faster than I thought it was gonna happen,” Father Shanley said Saturday. “I thought it was gonna happen, and this team has just gotten better and better and better every game, and Rick is a genius on the basketball court.”
Father Shanley suggested some Divine Providence was at work.
“I think it was Providence, both literally and place-wise,” Father Shanley said. “Rick was at Providence...I think I showed at Providence, we could turn things around, and we’ve turned things around, but it’s been even faster than we did at Providence.”
In recent years Pitino had been linked to openings at Maryland, Indiana, UNLV and St. John’s.
But the St. John’s move was a no-brainer for Pitino, who grew up on East 26th St. in Manhattan and, in jumping from Iona to St. John’s, wouldn’t have to move away from his home on the Winged Foot Golf Club.
“I thought St. John’s had to change, and you need a great leader at the top,” Pitino said of Father Shanley. “I went to Providence for a reunion and I didn’t recognize the campus. I couldn’t believe selling out every game ‚and everybody gave him the credit. So there’s no doubt in my mind, I would never, ever have taken the job if he wasn’t the president."
Of course, other people matter, too. St. John’s has a dramatic and modern 1-2 punch in a Hall of Fame coach and a billionaire NIL backer in Mike Repole, who gives more than 50% of the team’s NIL budget.
That budget, guided in part by GM Matt Abdelmassih, has helped Pitino build a roster anchored by transfers Kadary Richmond (Seton Hall), RJ Luis (UMass) and Zuby Ejiofor (Kansas).
Luis is the favorite to win Big East Player of the Year, while Richmond and Ejiofor could also earn First-Team All-Big East status.
“To me, RJ Luís is the Big East Player of the Year,” Pirates coach Shaheen Holloway said.
The fans have also come back in a big way, allowing St. John’s to sell out the Garden over and over in recent weeks in a buildup to the Big East Tournament.
He compared it to his time in Greece.
“One thing about Greece, I’ve never seen crowds in my lifetime, I mean they light off flares, they have nets around the court, they’re chanting things I’ve never heard before, and when I found out what they were chanting I couldn’t believe it...” he said.
“This is like Greece now, been great. We’re so appreciative of our fans, our alumni, our subway alumni, and the students getting behind the team.”
In one full-circle moment for Pitino, former Louisville AD Tom Jurich, who was fired along with the coach in 2017, was at the game supporting Pitino. Pitino has never forgiven Louisville for how they treated him and Jurich, and has always appreciated his friend for having his back.
“What he did at Louisville was magical,” he said.
Still, Greece is where he predicted he would bring St. John’s back to an “elite level,” and now St. John’s resembles Greece to him in some ways.
In 2019, Pitino led Panathinaikos to the Greek Cup Championship. And now six years later, he’s eyeing a Big East Tournament championship and a deep March Madness run to go with the regular-season title.
“I think we’re just scratching the surface of the potential of St. John’s,” he said
And then, wrapping up his press conference, he said, “Now that I’ve thanked everybody, I’m gonna go get a Jameson and Ginger.”
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Adam Zagoria is a freelance reporter and Basketball Insider for NJ Advance Media. You may follow him on Twitter @AdamZagoria and check out his Website at ZAGSBLOG.com.