Rick Pitino trying to learn from important St. John’s lesson at start of season: ‘Stuck with me’
When the frustration eventually subsided and the anguish softened, Rick Pitino took a closer look at what ultimately cost St. John’s a spot in last year’s NCAA Tournament.
As much as fans could fault the selection committee for passing on St. John’s as one of the 68 teams selected, the Johnnies didn’t help their cause by taking too long to hit their stride in Pitino’s first season.
In particular was the way they started the year, by dropping nonconference games to non-tournament teams Michigan and Boston College.
A strong league performance that saw St. John’s finish fifth in the Big East with an 11-9 record, their most conference wins since 2010-11, couldn’t make up for the shaky early-season results.
“It stuck with me, in terms of we got to be ready early in the season,” Pitino told the Post ahead of Monday’s regular-season opener against Fordham at Carnesecca Arena. “This year’s schedule is much tougher than last year’s schedule.”
Dating back to the summer, Pitino has said several times how important it was for St. John’s to be prepared once the ball goes up on Nov. 4.
He focused more in summer workouts on his offensive and defensive system rather than individual skill development. He has cut back on the numbers of plays he will call at both ends of the floor, at least for the time being.
He scheduled exhibition games at Rutgers, which entered the year ranked No. 25 in the Associated Press preseason poll, and against CAA preseason favorite Towson.
The nonconference schedule, featuring No. 8 Baylor, projected tournament team Kansas State and potentially No. 12 Tennessee, is tougher than last year’s slate.
“We’re more primed to be ready for the first game out,” Pitino said.
Added junior forward Zuby Ejiofor: “This team is a lot more connected early on. Our main focus was just building on our chemistry. We did a lot more things, not just on the court, but off the court as well to get aligned and try to get to know each other a lot more than we did last year to start the season.”
There were factors in last year’s slow start. It was Pitino’s first season at a new school. The roster was almost completely new, just two holdovers from the Mike Anderson era.
Five players return, including expected starters RJ Luis, Simeon Wilcher and Ejiofor.
They know what Pitino expects and understand what held last year’s team back.
On top of that, the major transfer additions — Kadary Richmond (Seton Hall), Deivon Smith (Utah) and Aaron Scott (North Texas) — are all in their fourth or fifth year of college basketball.
There is loads of experience with this group.
Beyond the nonconference hiccups, St. John’s also struggled to close out games until getting hot in late February and early March.
After starting 4-1 in league play, the Red Storm dropped eight of 10 games, four of the losses coming by a combined 12 points. They led at halftime in five of the defeats.
“Essentially, we’re going to need those games to get to the tournament,” Ejiofor said.
Pitino has a saying he likes to tell his players: “Nothing changes if nothing changes.”
He wasn’t going to repeat the same mistakes as last year, and so he hammered home how significant games in November and December can be, and has followed that up by making adjustments to how he has prepared this team.
“Early on we talked about our mistakes and what we could’ve done differently to get to the tournament,” Ejiofor said. “We have no regrets and we know that there’s a lot of things we could’ve done early on to increase our chances of going to the tournament. Our job is not to repeat those mistakes, especially early on.
“Just taking care of business like we’re supposed to, to not give the committee any choice but to put us in the tournament. Ultimately, leaving the decision up to us not them.”
