No one knows how long Rick Pitino will be coaching.
Even himself, who is 72 years old.
The Hall of Fame coach said he has no plans to quit as long as he stays healthy.
His new athletic director, Ed Cull, has seen that passion up close.
“His enthusiasm, his passion is at an all-time high. His energy level is amazing and it's contagious, not just in terms of what it means to the players, but to the staff, the management and the supporters.” It's a thing,” Kuru said on Zoom this week. “He's as focused as I could imagine and his energy is unbelievable in terms of his attention to detail. We're talking about practice facilities, seating in the arena, visiting other schools on the road.” We often talk about what the school has, the different things and initiatives the school has, the additional features that have been added to the school, things like the campus and facilities.
His fastball doesn't seem to have lost anything.
Pitino's performance helped St. John's get off to its best start since the 1998-99 season with an overall record of 16 wins and 3 losses.
The Johnnys entered Wednesday night's meeting with Xavier alone at The Garden atop the Big East having won seven of eight league games.
Returning players RJ Lewis and Zuby Ejiofor have made big strides under Pitino's leadership, while transfers Kadary Richmond (Seton Hall), Aaron Scott (North Texas) and Davon Smith (Utah) have made a big impact. gave.
“He’s as grounded and focused as I would like him to be,” Cal said. “He often talks about how he's been here a while and seen first-hand the projects like the practice facility and arena renovations. I have the utmost effort. [confidence] He's willing to go as far as he wants. He’s in great shape.”
The two sides have not discussed Pitino's contract, which has three years remaining after this season.
But Pitino doesn't speak like someone who has the end times in mind.
Check out the latest Big East standings and St. Louis. John's statistics
He regularly speaks about bringing back St. John's fans, establishing a winning culture and making the program relevant again on a national level.
Back in October, Pitino talked about how unhappy he was in retirement after being fired by Louisville in October 2017 and spending a year before starting coaching again in Greece with Panathinaikos.
“If there's something very exciting about retirement, that's not a bad thing, but as someone who's been coaching for as long as I have, I can't live without teaching young players how to play the game. ” he said at the time. “From my perspective, I took a year off and didn't enjoy it.”
“It was so nostalgic,” Pitino added. “I got a chance to realize what it would be like without it, and I didn't really like it.”
He seems to be enjoying his recent coaching stint at Queen's.
St. John's University is in position to advance to the main draw of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 10 years, and Pitino is looking to win a tournament game against a fourth different school.
He also becomes the first coach to have six different programs in the tournament.
