Behind Rick Pitino, St. John’s wins outright Big East title

NEW YORK — The final horn sounded and St. John’s skipped cutting down the nets.

The players instead held the trophy after the No. 7 Red Storm clinched the program’s first outright Big East title since 1985 and posed for pictures on the court while confetti fell from the ceiling at Madison Square Garden in front of a sellout crowd.

Toward the end of the celebration after a 71-61 victory over Seton Hall on Saturday, coach Rick Pitino declared to the excited fans: “We’re just getting started.”

The celebration was modest because the Red Storm are eyeing other goals, such as their first Big East tournament title since 2000 and a deep run in the NCAA tournament.

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“This is the answer to a prayer,” St. John’s president, the Rev. Brian Shanley, said. “This is what I hoped when we hired Rick that we would get back where we are right now — contending for a national championship. This is just the beginning in my book.”

The Red Storm are the outright regular-season champs for the first time since Chris Mullin led them to the Final Four, when the team was nicknamed the Redmen and coached by Lou Carnesecca. St. John’s hadn’t even won a share of the title since 1992 in the final season of Carnesecca’s storied career on the sideline.

The drought was the longest in Big East history, though several schools exited without any conference titles before spending anywhere near 33 years in the league.

This year, St. John’s achieved the title in the same season during which Carnesecca died just a few weeks short of his 100th birthday on Nov. 30.

“We’re very proud of the fact that in the year that he passed because he led a great life, we can honor him with this championship,” Pitino said.

The Red Storm won the regular-season title after being picked fifth in the Big East preseason poll. They added Kadary Richmond to go along with returnees RJ Luis Jr. and Zuby Ejiofor, who emerged as stars.

“I came here to challenge myself and try to take my game to the next level and obviously try to win at the highest level, which Coach Pitino knows how to do really well and trying to learn from him,” Luis said. “I think it’s just a surreal feeling.”

After transferring from UMass, Luis averaged 10.9 points in 23 games last season while dealing with shin splints. Following offseason surgery, he’s a leading candidate for Big East Player of the Year, averaging 17.7 points.

Ejiofor backed up Joel Soriano last season and emerged as a force down low by averaging 14 points and eight rebounds as St. John’s ascended to the top of the Big East. The Red Storm won 11 straight from Jan. 4 to Feb 7, a stretch that included consecutive wins over Marquette and UConn. They are 18-0 at home.

“It was a really proud moment,” Ejiofor said. “It was a testament of the work that we put in the whole season from preseason until now we all believe that we could get to this moment.”

Last season, the Red Storm reached the semifinals of the Big East tournament for the first time since 2000 and saw Pitino’s first season end with a 95-90 loss to UConn, which dominated opponents en route to its second straight national title.

After guaranteeing St. John’s would return to natural prominence at his introductory news conference in March 2023, Pitino’s first season featured a viral rant during which he lamented the team’s athleticism after a loss to Seton Hall in February 2024.

Since airing his frustration, St. John’s is 32-5, with the losses coming by a combined 12 points.

“In my lifetime, I never looked at that until it was written and I said, ‘I better get this thing going,'” Pitino said. “It is a little different than the other places I’ve been the second year because you have eight and nine players back and everybody understands everything you teach and the culture and the system are there.”

The turnaround continued a trend in Pitino’s long coaching career that also included two seasons with the New York Knicks in the early portion of Patrick Ewing’s career.

At his first stop as a head coach, Boston University was 21-9 in his second season. Providence went from 17-14 to 25-9, Kentucky jumped from 14-14 to 22-6, Louisville from 19-13 to 25-7 and Iona improved from 12-6 during a pandemic-abbreviated season to 25-8.