When St. John’s hired Rick Pitino prior to the 2023-24 season they were hoping one of college basketball’s most successful coaches could work his magic and return the program to relevance. Three years into the experiment, it is pretty clear that he has. They now rule the Big East and have firmly established themselves as a legitimate contender going into the NCAA tournament.
St. John’s wins another Big East title
Thanks to their dominant 72-52 win over No. 6 UConn on Saturday, the No. 15 ranked Red Storm won their second consecutive Big East conference tournament under Pitino’s watch.
Even more, they became the first team to ever win the Big East regular season championship and conference tournament in consecutive seasons.
Overall St. John’s is 59-11 over the past two years and 79-24 overall under Pitino and will now be going to its second consecutive NCAA tournament.
It is a huge turnaround for a program that had fallen out of relevance for the better part of the two decades that preceded Pitino’s arrival. They had qualified for the NCAA tournament just four times in the 23 years prior to Pitino’s hire.
Pitino is one of the giants in college basketball coaching, and has won national championships with two different programs and been competitive pretty much everywhere he has been. He is doing it again. The next challenge is going to be taking the next step and finding major success in the NCAA tournament. If he does that here it will only add to his legacy.