St. John’s Red Storm head coach Rick Pitino believed his team did enough to get into NCAA Division I field of 68 men’s basketball tournament after defeating the Seton Hall Pirates last Thursday in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden.
He turned out to be wrong.
The 20-13 Red Storm’s 95-90 loss to the NCAA Tournament’s No. 1 seed Connecticut Huskies the following evening was the Red Storm’s final game of the 2023–2024 campaign.
“We had a terrific season,” Pitino said, speaking with the media virtually on Sunday night.
“We played exciting basketball down the stretch. We lost to the defending national champions 95-90. We had a lot of firsts this year. I’ve never been on this end of the stick before as a coach, and it certainly hurts, but for me, the hurt really is in the eyes of my players and that’s what hurts the most.”
St. John’s was among seven major college programs that did not get selected for the field of 68 to decline an invitation to play in the National Invitational Tournament (NIT).
“I feel if we’re going to move forward, most of our time now needs to be spent recruiting, because we’re going to have to bring in probably seven or eight new players, and preparing for the NIT does not help our future,” Pitino explained.
“Now, if it was a normal year, we [would] only have to bring in three or four players, then I think it would be beneficial, and you had a lot of young players that you wanted to further develop, but right now we’re in a situation where we’ve got to replace a lot of players.”
The NCAA transfer portal for men’s basketball, which allows players to transfer from one school to another, opened Monday and closes on May 1.
Before this season began, the Red Storm were picked to finish fifth in the conference in the coaches’ poll. The prediction was accurate as St. John’s was 11-9 in the Big East. They closed their season by winning six straight before losing to Connecticut.
Whether the Red Storm’s first season under Pitino was a success or disappointing is open for debate, but looking ahead, sophomore RJ Luis Jr, an athletic 6-7 wing and the team’s only eligible returning player to average double figures in points, will be expected to take on a much bigger role. Sophomore’s Zuby Ejiofor and freshman Brady Dunlap, both forwards, should also be mainstays of Pitino’s rotation if they come back. Ejiofor played in all 33 games, averaging 11.3 minutes and Dunlap avenged 12.5 minutes in 25 games.
How Pitino rebuilds his roster, probably more with transfers than incoming freshman from high school as he did this season, will determine if he has laid the foundation for a berth in the NCAA Tournament next season.