Rick Pitino: The godfather of college basketball

St. John’s men’s basketball is back, and you must say it is majorly due to one man, head coach Rick Pitino.

The Red Storm find themselves wreaking havoc not only on the Big East but all of NCAA basketball. They currently are the sixth highest-ranked team in the nation with a 26-4 record (17-2 in conference) with an astonishing perfect win rate at home of 18-0.

This is a fantastic improvement from a program that has been teetering on the edge of mediocrity the past years, being just 11-9 in the conference last year and even worse in the previous years.

But all this is an understatement to the performance of St. John’s and the talent of Rick Pitino. The Red Storm find themselves in the top 10 for the first time since the 1999-2000 season and have taken down ranked opponents in Marquette, UConn and Creighton.

Meanwhile, their few losses came from Villanova last month, then to Creighton, Georgia and at the time 13th-ranked Baylor by just one point in double OT.

No matter who they have played, this team has fought every second, and if they get knocked down, they get right back up.

In all of their losses this season, their combined margin is just seven points. Even when they lose, it is a dogfight, and that is a testament to Rick Pitino, who truly has been the Godfather of this team.

This was reinforced this past week when, in their matchup against Seton Hall to start March, he showed up in his signature white suit to clinch the regular season crown of the Big East.

They would win 71-61 on their home court in Madison Square Garden, led by a 21-point performance from RJ Luis Jr. and a 17-point double-double from Zuby Ejiofor.

St. John’s will finish their season on Saturday against number 20 Marquette to finalize their resume as they are pining for a top seed in this iteration of the Big Dance.

This team is built very well for success in March, they run an efficient offense with a balanced pace while having four men on the roster averaging over one steal per game and a fifth in Kadary Richmond who averages over two steals per game.

Some things we have come to expect from Rick Pitino-led teams hold true in this St. John’s team, they are bought into both their coach and believe in this team.

They will play hard all game with tough defense that forces mistakes and they will play hard for every single second of this game because if you give them a chance they will capitalize.

This team is one to watch for March Madness and Rick Pitino will steer this team to success and be amped up while doing it because one thing that is undeniable about Pitino is he believes in the roster he builds, the character of the players he forms and the performance of his guys especially when the situations get tough.

Massimo Manfra is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email mgm6116@psu.edu.