Rick Pitino’s Return to Coaching
Rick Pitino often shares a story about his abrupt return to coaching abroad in the EuroLeague with Panathinaikos. It happened just before Christmas in 2018. He was enjoying a semi-retired life at home when, on Christmas Eve, he found himself coaching in Greece.
“From that point on, I’ve always believed: adjust and adapt,” he reflected on Thursday during the Big East’s media day at the Marriott Marquis in Midtown.
Since St. John’s last played in March, after a successful second consecutive 30-win season, there’s been quite a bit of reshuffling. Starting on April 14, the team began modifying its roster, bringing in EuroLeague point guard Quinn Ellis. The roster reshaping continued until late August with the addition of Keyshawn Hall, a transfer from Auburn. Hall is among many seniors from last year who are looking for an extra year of eligibility following a new NCAA rule.
In the meantime, they faced some setbacks: Syracuse transfer Donnie Freeman suffered a season-ending Achilles injury, while Montenegrin wing Djordije Jovanovic couldn’t join the team due to student visa issues. Additionally, high school recruit Gildas Gimenez was declared an academic non-qualifier.
“Now that we’re all together, it’s quite a group,” Pitino remarked.
With less than two weeks before their first exhibition game against Drexel, the roster is not yet finalized. Nevertheless, there’s hope that everyone will be cleared before their regular season opener against Monmouth on November 2.
Highly coveted Senegalese wing Babacar Sane has a hearing in Queens Supreme Court regarding his eligibility after an initial temporary restraining order against the NCAA. Ellis is still waiting on NCAA decisions, although some similar international players have recently been granted eligibility. Meanwhile, Hall is entangled in a significant case in Ohio that has received a preliminary injunction, but is still awaiting the ruling from the Ohio Court of Appeals, having also filed a separate case in Queens.
“We feel everybody’s going to be fine, everybody is going to be playing, so we don’t deal with it,” Pitino stated. “These guys are working their tails off right now, and we let the courts handle it.”
If everything aligns, this could potentially be an exciting season for St. John’s. Pitino describes this team as the most talented he has had at St. John’s.
The backcourt combination of Ellis and Ian Jackson holds the promise of being explosive. High-scoring wing Tounde Yessoufou, who set a record at Baylor last season for points scored by a freshman, was a late-first-round NBA draft prospect before deciding to return to school. Hall, standing at 6-foot-7, averaged 19.3 points and 7.1 rebounds for Auburn. Meanwhile, reports about the exceptional 6-8 Sane have been overwhelmingly positive.
“I think we have frontcourt talent as good as anybody in the country,” said Pitino, who is 74. “The reason I say that is we’re deep. I don’t know who the best player is. One day it can be Babacar. The next day it could be [Indiana transfer] Reed Bailey. It could be Ruben, Tounde, or Keyshawn. It’s a talented group — now they just have to learn to play together.”
But, as always, progress may take time. The only returning players with substantial minutes last season are Jackson and forward Ruben Prey. The team wasn’t even fully assembled until the fall semester began, and while there’s a lot of basketball experience within the team, for new players like Sane, Ellis, and Hungarian import Zsombor Maronka, college basketball is still quite unfamiliar.
Last season’s team didn’t hit their stride until mid-January, and this year’s non-conference schedule doesn’t feature any easy matchups. St. John’s is set to host Arizona and play against Alabama in early December, and they’ll return to Las Vegas for the Players Era Festival during Thanksgiving week.
“It’s a very difficult schedule and I’ll be very frank: We’re not going to be ready for that schedule,” Pitino cautioned. “But come January and February, I expect to see a great basketball team.”
