Rick Pitino will be formally introduced by St. John's on Tuesday afternoon, representing the latest hopeful savior of a once-proud program that has been searching for past glory for decades.
Before Pitino even took the podium at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, he talked with Zach Braziller of the New York Post and laid out his lofty and immediate goals for the Red Storm now that he is at the helm.
The highlight? Pitino expects to turn the program around right away.
"It's really, really important to me I go out building St. John's into a special brand in the country," Pitino told Braziller. "That brand was lost a long time ago. And I've got to build that culture and that brand back where everybody is proud to be part of the Red Storm program, and it takes a lot of work to do that."
"Today with NIL, the Big East, I expect to rebuild in months, not years"
What does Pitino expect to rebuild St. John's into? Where it was in its glory days under Lou Carnesecca.
"We will double the season-ticket holders, we will double the gates at the Garden," Pitino said. "This is going to be a special ticket again.
"We expect enthusiasm to be second to none and we're going to build a brand that goes back to Louie's days."
Pitino sounds committed, and sounds confident that the Red Storm will be a Big East powerhouse again sooner than later, which is sure to inject enthusiasm into the New York area, which hasn't seen that level of success in college basketball in far too long.
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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