Rick Pitino was introduced as St. John’s head coach on Tuesday, and he wasted no time making his intentions for the program known.
“St John’s is going to be back,” Pitino said. “I guarantee that.”
Pitino, no stranger to Madison Square Garden of the Big East, hopes to return a shine to the Red Storm program that has gradually faded away for decades. Normally, rebuilding a program would be a process, but with the crowded transfer portal of today’s college basketball landscape, he sees things turning around quickly, and leading to national prominence.
“I’ve been to The Garden as the Knicks coach, as the Providence coach, and now I get to represent something really special,” Pitino said. “And it’s not about when or if. It’s going to happen for St. John’s, and it’s going to happen in a big way. But the first thing you have to do is build a culture.”
How will Pitino address the culture of his new team? First things first, he made it clear that the team will likely look a lot different than this past season, and, hopefully as a result, the outcome will look a lot different as well.
“A lot of these players probably won't be back on this team because they're probably not a good fit for me,” Pitino admitted. “With me, I think my players love playing for me, even from Mark Jackson and Patrick Ewing and Charles Oakley…but it takes a certain kind of basketball player to want to play for me. He’s gotta be a total over-the-top, in love with the game of basketball. If you’re not, it’s just a bad fit with me. It doesn’t work. There will be a lot of players that I hope move on to greener pastures.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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