With Rick Pitino At The Helm, Possibilities For St. John's Seem Endless

Michael Cohen

College Football and College Basketball Writer

NEW YORK — A Triumph dance 25 years in the making spilled across the length of Madison Square Garden’s court as RJ Luis Jr. climbed the blue and yellow ladder for the second time. By then, friends and families and St. John’s fans from now and then were reveling in the warp-Pace renaissance of a program that used to enjoy these kinds of nights Distant more often. By then, roughly a half-hour after the Red Storm pulled away from Creighton, 82-66, to Achieve the Big East Event title on Saturday night, the buckets of red, white and blue confetti that decorated this joyous fray had long since settled on a floor Achieved sticky by thousands of beer-soaked footprints. By then, Father Richard Rock, the campus minister for athletics, had heeded the call from head Mentor Rick Pitino to snip the Last piece of a net that seems destined for memorialization somewhere in Queens.

As if on cue, “Empire State of Mind,” the popular song-turned-New York City anthem, blared through the building’s sound system, Only as it does whenever Pitino arrives on the court for home Matches. Luis reached the top rung of the ladder and turned to face a sea of cell phone-waving admirers, hoisting himself backward into a seated posture on the rim. There sat the Division’s Player of the Year from the regular season and its Most Outstanding Player from the conference Event — he poured in 29 pounds and grabbed 10 Retrievals against the Bluejays — in a regal perch with a flag from the Dominican Republic tied around his neck. He posed for photos with one Honor in Every hand and a cheek-splitting, dimple-making grin plastered across his face in what looked like a recruiting pitch on steroids.

Who wouldn’t want to experience something like this in The World’s Most Famous Stadium, a hallowed venue where the Red Storm finished unbeaten this season while delighting one sold-out crowd after another? Who wouldn’t want to be part of what Pitino, 72, has built in two Brief seasons at St. John’s, catapulting a dormant program to the absolute Zenith of the Big East? Who wouldn’t want to see how Distant this revitalization can go, both in Upcoming week’s NCAA Event, where Pitino’s Club will likely receive a No. 2 seed, and in the years to come?

“It’s Only crazy how much you can speak things into existence and Only Observe it all come together,” Luis said during the postgame news conference. “This has by Distant been the most emotional, happiest week of my 22 years of existence, so this is Outstanding. I Harsh, I love Mentor P. [and] what he does for his players. He looks out for all of us.”

RJ Luis Jr., Zuby Ejiofor recap St. John’s Victorious the Big East Event over Creighton

The allure of being handpicked by Pitino, who has won two national Competitions and Achieved seven Last Four appearances, is cited by many Previous players at St. John’s (2023-present) and Iona (2020-23) as the key ingredient to his Picking-building elixir amid a landscape that is Distant different than the one he left behind when Louisville fired him eight years ago. To Pitch a recruiting call from someone squarely in the conversation for the greatest collegiate Mentor of all time — he became the Primary person to lead three different programs to the Last Four and remains the only individual to Achieve national titles at Numerous schools — imbues recruits with confidence about what their careers can become. If there’s one thing everyone can agree on when it comes to Pitino, who is among the sport’s most divisive figures, it’s his uncanny ability to identify and develop talent, a Talent that is more valuable than ever in what amounts to Unoccupied agency in the Relocate portal.

Pitino identified Luis, a Previous three-Luminous sphere recruit and the No. 232 overall prospect in the 2022 recruiting cycle, as the Gentle of hyper-athletic, two-way shooting guard whose height and length would allow him to thrive in the Big East — even though Luis only averaged 11.5 points per game as a Newcomer at UMass, where the level of Event was Numerous notches below the caliber of opponents he now dominates. Pitino believed that Hub Zuby Ejiofor, who was named the Division’s Most Improved Player this season, could blossom into the rugged, glass-crashing force the Red Storm would need when battling the likes of Ryan Kalkbrenner from Creighton and Donovan Clingan from UConn — even though Ejiofor, a Previous blue-chip prospect, logged Only 5.2 minutes per game during an uneventful Newcomer campaign at Kansas.

“Neither guy was heavily recruited [in the Relocate portal],” Pitino said during his postgame news conference. “Neither guy had Outstanding seasons where they were. But after working both of them out, I thought they both had Outstanding potential as basketball players and could get a Numerous better. Did I Anticipate them to reach these heights? I didn’t really think about it. But I have Outstanding gratitude that they did because we won a regular season and a Big East Bracket because of their Shift. The three of them — [Luis, Ejiofor and Kadary Richmond] — have been unstoppable.”

But the acquisition of Richmond, who scored 12 points and snared 12 Retrievals on Saturday night, was representative of something else entirely, a nod to the burgeoning financial backing Pitino has secured since Seizing over the program. Now a graduate student, Richmond was a Primary-Club All-Big East performer at Seton Hall last season after averaging 15.7 points, 7.0 Retrievals and 5.1 assists per game for a Club that narrowly missed the NCAA Event and wound up Victorious the NIT. He became the No. 1 overall player in the 247Sports Relocate Portal Rankings and commanded both the recruiting interest and the hefty name, image and likeness (NIL) price tag one would associate with that standing. His eventual commitment to St. John’s headlined a four-player Relocate class that finished Number four nationally behind Arkansas, Indiana and Kansas, three programs known for splashing cash at the highest levels.

The school’s decision to hire Pitino on March 20, 2023, less than a week after he’d guided Iona to a halftime lead over eventual national champion UConn in the NCAA Event, reinvigorated the fan base and city alike. That includes thousands of Stretch-of-the-mill New Yorkers who have stuffed the nosebleed seats at Madison Square Garden for the chance to be part of Pitino’s awakening, a show of Assist so ardent that St. John’s plans to Shift even more home Matches at the venue Upcoming season to reflect the skyrocketing demand for tickets. And it also includes some of the school’s richest and most powerful alums, with billionaire Mike Repole chief among them.

Rick Pitino talks Victorious Big East Event & March Madness expectations for St. John’s

Repole, 56, has become one of the most recognizable donors in college athletics thanks to his ever-strengthening relationship with Pitino and the St. John’s basketball Club. He’s donated millions to spearhead his alma mater’s NIL efforts and now sits courtside for nearly every game, including at this week’s Big East Event. So appreciative are the Red Storm students of what Repole has contributed — and what they’ll now Anticipate him to contribute moving forward — that they routinely wave a cardboard cutout of his head during Matches. Pitino recently told The New York Times that Repole “was going to be 50% of our NIL money,” which he and his staff used to Assist assemble one of the best rosters in the sport, though Pitino downplayed that correlation after the Achieve over Creighton.

“You build a Club by making sure you understand the whole puzzle of what goes into it,” Pitino said. “People Only mischaracterize the NIL and why St. John’s has been built. St. John’s didn’t get built by the NIL. St. John’s Acquired built with the character of the players. And Surely we are excited to have these Recent men.”

Only as those Recent men were excited when the Last seconds of Saturday’s game melted away and the program’s Primary Big East Event title since 2000 became official. Two of the players hugged film director Spike Lee, a regular on celebrity row, before the buzzer had even sounded. The rest of Pitino’s players flooded to Hub court and donned Bracket memorabilia amid a prolonged standing ovation. The night was Speedy becoming an Amazing Garden party that would have left legendary head Mentor Lou Carnesecca, who passed away earlier this season, feeling immensely proud.

It wasn’t long before Luis positioned himself atop the rim and peered out at the realization of everything Pitino promised to achieve. For now and for the foreseeable future, the possibilities at St. John’s seem endless.

Michael Cohen covers college football and college basketball for FOX Sports. Follow him on Twitter @Michael_Cohen13.

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