SARATOGA SPRINGS — Rick Pitino acknowledged the team’s progress in his first season at St. John’s but said there’s still a lot of work to be done to build a perennial Big East winning team in Queens.
Sitting in a VIP box in the clubhouse at Saratoga Race Course, where he’s spending the weekend cheering on the horses of friend, St. John’s University alumnus and supporter Mike Lepore, Pitino spoke of the challenges ahead.
“This year has been really good,” Pitino said of the Red Storm’s 20-13 overall record and 11-9 mark in the Big East.
Those records did not translate into an NCAA Tournament appearance, but they were improvements over the 18-15 and 7-13 records that came in the final year of the Mike Anderson era.
“The hard part is building a culture,” Pitino said. “I don’t know if it’s impossible, but I don’t think it’s easy because there’s so much turnover. For better or worse, it’s a new game and you can’t really build a culture. Culture changes every year.”
The Red Storm will field a new backcourt next season with former Seton Hall star Kadary Richmond, University of Utah transfer Davon Smith and former University of North Texas wing Aaron Scott.
But Pitino said a lot of changes need to be made behind the scenes to get the house in order.
“Most of the work at St. John’s has to be done off the court, not on the court,” said the Hall of Fame coach, 71. “On the court, it’s like any other job. Off the court, we have to address some big issues that we have to improve on.”
“It was almost a step back in time to the days of St. John’s. Now we have to build a first-class program in every way: weight room, meeting rooms. From a training standpoint, everything is outdated and we’re doing something about it now.”
Pitino has made it clear that the financial backing the team receives from Lepore, a billionaire entrepreneur and now well-known horse owner, is crucial.
“Without Mike, I couldn’t do what I’m doing,” he said. “It wouldn’t be possible. We don’t have that support. Without Mike, we’d be at the bottom of the totem pole, or in the bottom three.”
Lepore spent much of the week visiting his horses and trainer Todd Pletcher in the stable area at Saratoga, and on Saturday, his horse Crupi came from last to the front to win the Grade 2 Suburban.
And later that day, he’ll be working up a sweat in the 156th Belmont Stakes, featuring two of his horses, Mind Frame and Protective.
But even here his heart is never far from his beloved Johnny’s.
“It’s great what Rick and his staff have done. When Rick got his staff together last year and started getting them acclimated to St. John’s, now, more than a year later, it’s completely changed,” he told the Post. “Their play at the end of last year was fantastic, and he’s upgraded the team and we should have the best backcourt in the country.”
“We got a little taste of what the garden will be like at the end of last year, but I think next year we’ll feel it on another level.”
