I hear ya but if you ain’t favored in a game you are not expected to win. Of course you can. But the reality is you are not expected as a dog. That’s why they are called upsets.
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Rick Pitino - Head Coach at St John’s University!!!
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Mike Zaun Returns
Well-known member
Yes but you can’t just expect to beat DePaul & GTown with Rick Pitino. We were a preseason T25 type team per pundits. Like I said I can understand 5-5 in big games. Even 4-6. But to lose every big game is completely unacceptable
I fell into this trap as well...Our expectations will certainly be tempered on recruits and transfers.
Specifically regarding Dingle and Ledlum... 23 / 18 ppg at Penn and Harvard... i thought we were getting two certified Studs. Didn't think IVY comp was thhhaaat below par... Princeton made it to the Sweet 16 last yr... Dingle had NBA workouts and Ledlum was on Tennessee prior to re-transferring to us...
Wilcher- UNC top 30 recruit- thought he would produce more than he has...
I will certainly be more cautious this offseason in regards to expectations...
We’re not done playing big games yet
Mike Zaun Returns
Well-known member
To this point I meant.
We won some games against good teams anlready. Utah. North Texas. Butler. Providence.
Of course it would have been nice to pull off those close road losses to Creighton and UConn. And the Marquette one at home.
Bottom line. Season ain’t over yet. Still to be determined.
I’m not trying to imply we will even win half of them at this point, but we were leading at half time against the #1 team in the country yesterday.
I do think this team was generally overhyped, and the scoring droughts coupled & amplified by the lack of intensity & focus on defense does have me just downright annoyed at the team.
But who knows. If we win the four games we’re supposed to win (I think one Georgetown game will be harder than expected), I still think we can go .500 against Providence/butler/creighton/Marquette. I don’t find any of those teams overwhelmingly better than on a talent level, like UConn is.
I do think this team was generally overhyped, and the scoring droughts coupled & amplified by the lack of intensity & focus on defense does have me just downright annoyed at the team.
But who knows. If we win the four games we’re supposed to win (I think one Georgetown game will be harder than expected), I still think we can go .500 against Providence/butler/creighton/Marquette. I don’t find any of those teams overwhelmingly better than on a talent level, like UConn is.
This is how you get a bullseye placed on your back. We better have our I's dotted and T's crossed.Pitino's quotes were picked up by ESPN and an article on it is one of the top headlines on ESPN
Pitino rips NCAA enforcement staff: 'It's a joke'
St. John's coach Rick Pitino says he believes the NCAA's enforcement arm is "of no value anymore" and should be "disbanded."www.espn.com
Agree, put the soap box away especially after loss. Bite your tongue, gather yourself and encourage/coach your team.
NIL Update: Governor Hochul signs amended NY NIL Bill
www.newmanlickstein.com
Again, huge hypocrisy. I’m sure pitino was thrilled this was passed.
little tired of the complaining... deal with it. take accountability- acknowledge team's faults (which he has)... and figure it the f*ck out lol...
Larry Wright
Well-known member
Since Rick opened the door, I am going to smash through it like the Kool Aid Man.
As I so astutely mentioned during the summer, this was not an easy path that Rick chose. The issue is that understandably Pitino overestimated how great he is compared to the giant crap ball St John’s has been.
The other problem was that Pitino hasn’t been a coach in a power conference for almost 10 years. Now you add in free transfer rule and NIL on top of how crappy ST John’s has been for the better part of 3 decades and much like Lavin, Mullin and Anderson found out this is not gonna be easy.
It didn’t have to be that way. Pitino came in wanting to clean house and I honestly believe thought he was going to make the tournament with a team he would put together on the fly to further his greatest coach ever argument.
Here is the thing, if he really wanted them and gave them the Pitino charm and we got them a portion of NIL I have heard Ledlum and Dingle received, he could have kept Posh and Storr. I also and THIS IS NOT REVISIONIST HISTORY, would have kept Jones. Numerous times I mentioned would have liked to see Jones coached by Pitino.
You start with Soriano, Jones, Storr and Posh and fill in gaps. Could still grab Jenkins, Taylor or Luis, Slaz and that team would have jelled better as it is obvious that Rick from the jump wasn’t really high on Dingle or Alleyne. Ledlum does some things well but is clearly not a BE 4.
That team would have had some continuity and I am positive that Pitino taking over core of team that won what 17 games with Mike Anderson and with some reinforcements would not be in contention for a tournament bid with a lot less growing pains along the way.
Now I have felt for some time this is not a tournament team, but felt with Rick we would get there next year and every year he was here after.
My fear is now , Pitino sounds like a guy who may pull the eject cord sooner than later and may not be here after this year.
As I so astutely mentioned during the summer, this was not an easy path that Rick chose. The issue is that understandably Pitino overestimated how great he is compared to the giant crap ball St John’s has been.
The other problem was that Pitino hasn’t been a coach in a power conference for almost 10 years. Now you add in free transfer rule and NIL on top of how crappy ST John’s has been for the better part of 3 decades and much like Lavin, Mullin and Anderson found out this is not gonna be easy.
It didn’t have to be that way. Pitino came in wanting to clean house and I honestly believe thought he was going to make the tournament with a team he would put together on the fly to further his greatest coach ever argument.
Here is the thing, if he really wanted them and gave them the Pitino charm and we got them a portion of NIL I have heard Ledlum and Dingle received, he could have kept Posh and Storr. I also and THIS IS NOT REVISIONIST HISTORY, would have kept Jones. Numerous times I mentioned would have liked to see Jones coached by Pitino.
You start with Soriano, Jones, Storr and Posh and fill in gaps. Could still grab Jenkins, Taylor or Luis, Slaz and that team would have jelled better as it is obvious that Rick from the jump wasn’t really high on Dingle or Alleyne. Ledlum does some things well but is clearly not a BE 4.
That team would have had some continuity and I am positive that Pitino taking over core of team that won what 17 games with Mike Anderson and with some reinforcements would not be in contention for a tournament bid with a lot less growing pains along the way.
Now I have felt for some time this is not a tournament team, but felt with Rick we would get there next year and every year he was here after.
My fear is now , Pitino sounds like a guy who may pull the eject cord sooner than later and may not be here after this year.
He opened up a can of worms by making that statement! Good for him for having the balls to say so. He’s said something that was in every coach’s mind and what we’ve discussed in the NIL thread. Now let’s see if they do something about it cause it hasn’t reached the peak of insanity yet but it will.
RedStormRising
Well-known member
This is why finishing 5th in the big east is so important. Even if it means 6 wins against DePaul, GTown, and Nova (the 3 bottom teams currently). We will be buoyed by the strength of the conference itself and will make the NCAAs.
To go into selection Sunday and say we should be in because we beat the 7th place team in the American conference on a neutral court by one point as a selling point will not bode well.
Big wins would be/have been great but we’ve missed our chances so far. We will have to settle for a high volume of okay wins, which means at minimum we need the 4 games vs Gtown and DePaul and 2 of 3 of the @butler, @providence, and home vs the Hall.
The later will all be fighting for the final couple tournaments spots as well. It’s not going to be easy but it’s not impossible either.
Larry Wright
Well-known member
For the record not predicting or wanting that but his post game certainly gave me alarm.
He put it in the back of my head
On board with everything you said. North Texas is just a decent to maybe above average team so I shouldn’t have called them a good team in another post. They too have missed out on a couple extra good wins recently to add juice to their metrics as well. We are lucky we won that game.
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Rick Pitno is not leaving. He is at his last job at home. He is intelligent enough to learn from his mistakes.
Providence/butler/creighton/Marquette, we need to win three of these four now in my opinion. If we don’t then we have to make up for it in the Big East Tournament in order to solidify a bid and not be a bubble team