NEW YORK — This is the tenth 12 months of the reformed Big East, and on Tuesday, the league held its annual preseason media day for its 22 males’s and girls’s basketball systems.
As commissioner Val Ackerman made her introductory speech, she famous how this 12 months introduced extra folks to Madison Square Garden for Big East media day than any within the 9 years prior.
The causes are lots, however one stands proud above the others: Rick Pitino is now the trainer at St. John’s. He has the juice. UConn is the reigning champion in males’s school basketball, Marquette is the select to copy as champion of the Big East, Villanova turns out well-positioned to go back to relevance after a down season and Creighton must once more be just right after an Elite Eight run.
But probably the most urgent level of intrigue on this convention over the following couple of months is what St. John’s will seem like underneath Pitino in Year 1.
St. John’s choice to convey Pitino again to big-stage school basketball may turn out to be the article that makes an adrift program topic once more. If Pitino wins big, it will place the Big East as probably the most compelling convention. That’s what hiring a Hall of Famer (with some polarizing qualities for some, indisputably) will do for a staff, for a league, for a area of the rustic that is aware of and loves its basketball.
“I think everything in life comes full circle,” Pitino instructed CBS Sports. “And this certainly has for me. This is the third time I’ve coached in the Big East, with three different universities. And this is really special because I didn’t have to move, which is great. It’s a little longer trip for me now, but being at St. John’s — growing up a St. John’s basketball fan, coaching against St. John’s — is quite special.”
The Red Storm had been picked 5th within the Big East preseason ballot. I’ve them forty second total in my listing of the highest 101 groups heading into the 2023-24 season. That’s numerous trust in a program that has one 20-win season and one NCAA Tournament look previously 8 years. That’s the affect of Pitino.
“I think this conference is as strong this year as any other time in the history of the Big East, which is saying something,” Pitino mentioned.
What’s extra, this roster is nearly totally a rebuild. The best important returning piece is Joel Soriano, a talented middle who averaged 15.2 issues and 11.9 rebounds and used to be an glaring fit for Pitino — and vice-versa.
“Joel just had a reputation of being a really good person,” Pitino mentioned. “I wanted to put together a collection of 13, 14 guys that were great people. Because, to try and win in your first year with new people, if you don’t have a great attitude, a great work ethic, then you’re probably not going to succeed. … So I had to start it all with him.”
Pitino is doggedly decided to make St. John’s the remaining nice bankruptcy in his sophisticated however undeniably mythical run as a trainer. If he can get SJU to the NCAA Tournament, that may mark the 6th program he is taken there, which might be an NCAA report. The Johnnies have not received a event sport since 2000 — one of the most longest high-major droughts in historical past. They’ve been looking for a savior for greater than 20 years. Pitino’s three-year display of prominence at Iona allowed for a Big East comeback tale — they usually love these types of high-stakes sports activities stories in New York City.
The fan base is loss of life for now not simply successful, however successful in some way that issues each in New York and nationally. Pitino and his body of workers ripped out the heart of this system, flipping all however two gamers. St. John’s introduced in a large number of guys with just right stats … however who performed on mediocre groups. If this Jonnies squad goes to complete within the best part of the Big East, then transfers like Jordan Dingle from Penn and RJ Luis shape UMass and Chris Ledlum from Harvard and Daniss Jenkins from Iona will want to turn out to be into power-conference performers.
They want the Pitino Effect.
“I’m looking forward to this year as much as I have in any time in my coaching history because it’s back home,” he mentioned. “I still remember my New York Knicks press conference. … The Garden has changed immensely, about $2 billion added into it, but still the same freight elevator to get to the locker room. There have been a lot of changes, but it’s the great history and I’m so excited to be back a part of it.”
As a measure of warning, Pitino instructed me it isn’t going to appear the way in which he needs it to appear within the first segment of the season.
“I think we have a lot to accomplish,” he mentioned. “Right now we’re not a good enough defensive team to even think that way. I think we’re good enough offensively. We have enough talent to do it. But defensively, to play with the likes of Creighton, Marquette, Connecticut, Xavier, Providence, to play with those teams it’s going to take a much better defense, something we don’t have right now. But I sort of figured we shouldn’t have it right now. We’re building toward the first game.”
Part of St. John’s turning into a contender will come with this system recruiting four- and five-star inexperienced persons within the future years, which has been an enormous problem previously twenty years for a college primarily based in Queens. However, the primary of doubtless many big names is freshman lead guard Simeon Wilcher, who decommitted from North Carolina to play for Pitino and is the highest-ranked Red Storm recruit in additional than 10 years.
After bringing aboard virtually a complete staff within the span of lower than two months, Pitino mentioned the revel in used to be in contrast to the rest he’d been thru as a trainer at any degree. One most important explanation why used to be all the NIL conversations that took place round him.
“And you don’t know how that’s gonna play out,” he mentioned. “Because now you get the young man to come in, now he has to go talk with somebody about the name, image and likeness (deal). And you have no idea how that’s going to turn out. So that was different than any time in my lifetime. Because you’re, it’s almost like you’re a professional basketball coach. And now you’re talking to a free agent. And the free agent has to go speak to the vice president to see if the contract’s workable. And that was kind of interesting, to say the least.”
If someone is in a position to navigating thru one impediment after every other after every other, it is Pitino. At 71, he is desperate to be again within the highlight and can a bunch of younger males into his symbol of a successful staff. To pay attention him speak about it, you get the sense he wishes it like he wishes meals. It’s an on a regular basis requirement.
If there is already this a lot buzz round St. John’s and the Big East in October, wait till league play begins. An enormous 12 months awaits for arguably the proudest basketball league in America.