During an appearance on CBS’s “Inside College Basketball” on Sunday, Rick Pitino shared his biggest secret for success at St. John’s.
Pitino was asked by former Villanova coach Jay Wright how he’s been able to flourish in the NIL/transfer portal era while others have failed or retired, and the Naismith Hall of Fame coach summed it up this way, “I really think you just have to adapt to the climate you’re in.”
Pitino added: “You have to know what to wear in that climate, how to adapt to it, and that’s what we’ve tried to do with the NIL, we tried to do with the portal. We didn’t complain. It’s here, let’s try to be the best at it that we could be as far as being creative.”
Of course, other factors matter, too. No. 6 St. John’s (26-4, 17-2 Big East) 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 impact transfers Kadary Richmond (Seton Hall), RJ Luis (UMass) and Zuby Ejiofor (Kansas).
Pitino is still going -- and making history -- while his contemporaries are retiring all around him. Just this year, Tony Bennett (Virginia), Jim Larranaga (Miami) and Leonard Hamilton (FSU) all announced their retirements.
By capturing St. John’s first outright Big East regular-season title since 1985, Pitino has now won league championships in five different conferences: America East (Boston University), SEC (Kentucky), American (Louisville), MAAC (Iona) and Big East (St. John’s).
Later this month, he will become the first coach to lead six different schools to the NCAA Tournament.
“We could definitely lose in the first round of the Tournament, and we could definitely go to a Final Four,” Pitino said Monday on WFAN with Brandon Tierney and Sal Licata.
He has 880 wins if you don’t take away his vacated victories at Louisville, fifth all-time. Both CBS and St. John’s are using the 880 number.
If you subtract his 123 vacated wins, he stands at 757, good for Top 20 all-time.
All of that, along with his history of dramatic improvement in Year 2 at every step, led his son, New Mexico coach Richard Pitino, to post on social media: “Top 3 of all time. John Wooden, Coach K, and @realpitino.”
Wooden won 10 NCAA champions and Mike Krzyzewski five, but they both coached in the pre-NIL era (at least when it was legal) and, in Wooden’s case, the pre-portal era, too.
Pitino is thriving during a unique time in the sport, one that helped drive Coach K, Wright, Roy Williams, Jim Boeheim and others into retirement.
“I think Rick realized this was the greatest opportunity he was going to have,” St. John’s President Father Brian Shanley said. “This is a redemption story, and where else could Rick Pitino do what he’s doing, except here in the Garden with St. John’s. It’s like you couldn’t have scripted this. This is like Hollywood in my book.”
Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting us with a subscription.
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.