St. John's is a week away from his first move to the top ten of the Associated Press's top ten rankings, beating two ranked teams since the final voting of the 1999-2000 season.
The Red Storm sits alone on top of the Big East, winning 10 straight games and playing for the top four seed in the NCAA tournament.
They generated quite a national buzz.
However, Rick Pitino has not seen the finished product. In fact, the Hall of Fame coach believes Johnny has plenty of room for improvement, especially for offensive purposes.
“The great thing about us is we are potentially 60% of the way. [of how good we can be]Pitino said in a Q&A session after screening the first episode of the new Vice TV Docuseries, “Pitino: Red Storm Rising,” which records the St. John's season. “We're not a very good offensive team. We don't pass it very well, don't shoot real, and we can get much better.
“deivon [Smith]7, 8 games ago, he was a great player and he hasn't come back from [his shoulder injury] still. We must get him back [playing well]. But we can get really good and it excites me. ”
9th place Johnny (21-3, 12-1) won a thrilling victory at the time. 19 Connecticut, National Champion defending consecutively.
Check out the latest Big East rankings and cents. John's statistics
It was St. John's first victory at the Gumpel Pavilion in Storps, Connecticut since 2000.
However, Pitino doesn't think it's a particularly good performance by his team.
His staff discovered 35 mistakes. Most notably, he failed to box out, leading to a rare performance where Johnny was beaten at the age of 10 with glass.
They had a 6:31 scoring drought in the second half.
“Our poorest game of the past 10 times has been Connecticut. We were excited about the victory? Yes, no questions asked. We played badly against Connecticut, which is terrible,” Pitino said. Ta. “You don't think so now, but we did. There were 35 bad plays. Usually, at this time of the year you're probably 17 or 18.”
St. John's is primarily because Cadalie Richmond and RJ Lewis took over the stretch.
Richmond scored all 12 of his points after halftime, with eight coming on a 14-1 run to give Johnny the lead.
Seton Hall transfers are at their best in victory times.
“What's great can bring it to a new level at crunch time and he bring it to a new level,” Pitino said.
It was around this time last year that St. John's took off.
The group took the leap in February. Lewis believes this team can do the same.
Last year's team has gotten much better on the defensive side, but these Johnny want the same offense.
“There's a lot of room for improvement, and this is very scary for me and my teammates,” Lewis said. “We have a lot of other levels that we can reach.”
Pitino spoke about his custom, St. John's next opponent, Villanova.
The Eric Dixon-led Wildcats have won Xavier at an impressive home win, earning 39.9% of their three-point shots.
They need to finish the year strongly to get into the NCAA Tournament photo, and by beating Johnny, their resume gives something new, something new to the Queens program.
“We're no longer hunters. We're hunted now. We know that,” Pitino said. “We know we have to bring it. But one thing about this team is that they bring it. They really do. Sometimes I'm going to get the stats sheet. Take it and say, “How did you win this game? I don't understand.'
“If we take up statistics from this basketball team [without knowing our record]I think we won 6 or 7 games. Seriously. But the possessions you get from mind, defense, forced turnovers, offensive rebounds, all of these things are truly amazing. ”
