St. John’s, Rick Pitino begin life as a ranked team as part of the week’s AP Top 25 national schedule

St. John’s hasn’t played with a national ranking in in nearly six years. It’s been even longer for Hall of Famer Rick Pitino to coach a team highlighted in The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll.

That changes with the 22nd-ranked Red Storm returning to the poll, marking the first time Pitino is leading a ranked team since his time at Louisville. The first game comes at home against Wagner as part of the AP Top 25 national schedule, followed by a matchup in Madison Square Garden against a New Mexico team coached by his son Richard.

Pitino — who won an NCAA championship at Kentucky in 1996 and a later-vacated one at Louisville in 2013 — is focused on fixing flaws that had his team down four at halftime against visiting Quinnipiac before taking over after halftime.

“Last year at this time we would’ve lost this game,” Pitino said after that 96-73 win. “But this team did the right things to win this game. I’m just hoping that this team evolves into the team that we had at the end of the year last year, because right now transition defense and man defense is a major, major weakness.”

Still, St. John’s (2-0) is ranked No. 22 in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency by scoring 115.8 points per 100 possessions, while the defense is ranked 14th by allowing 94.7 points per 100 possessions.

The Red Storm hadn’t been ranked since spending a week at No. 24 in January 2019. And that was one of just 10 appearances since 2001.

For Pitino, it marks the first time he will coach an AP Top 25 team since the final poll of the 2016-17 season, not long before he was fired at Louisville after that school became entangled in a federal corruption probe into the sport.

The game in the Garden offers a notable matchup, both with the Lobos having beaten then-ranked UCLA and the family-reunion angle.

“You don’t pay attention to the coach down at the other end,” Pitino said. “I’ll coach against my son, and I don’t even want to look at him. You just want to…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/st-john-rick-pitino-begin-182150601.html

Author : NBC Sports

Publish date : 2024-11-12 18:21:00

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