St. John’s responds to Rick Pitino’s criticism, pulls off major upset over Creighton

Rick Pitino and St. John’s pulled off an upset victory over the Creighton Blue Jays on Sunday, could it put them into the NCAA Tournament?

After St. John’s 68-62 loss to Seton Hall last weekend, coach Rick Pitino lit into his players in a postgame press conference – repeatedly citing their lack of toughness and skill limitations while indicating this season has been the least fun he has had in a while.

Since then the Red Storm have picked up a pair of victories, first a five point win on the road at Georgetown followed by a massive 14 point home victory over the No. 15 ranked Creighton Blue Jays on Sunday.

Creighton, who upset UConn earlier this week, fell to 11-6 in Big East play and 20-8 overall while St. John’s moved to 8-9 and 16-12 overall.

The Red Storm were carried by transfer guards Daniss Jenkins (27 points, six assists) and Jordan Dingle (18 points). St. John’s only turned the ball over three times as a team, while they outrebounded the Blue Jays 42-35.

The win should sneak St. John’s back into the NCAA Tournament bubble conversation, although they will likely need a strong performance in the Big East Tournament to end up in the Big Dance.

But, with regular season games left at Butler, at DePaul, and home against Georgetown, Pitino’s team could carry some momentum into Madison Square Garden – and that could lead to said run, and ultimately a return for Pitino to the NCAA Tournament.

St. John’s fires Mike Anderson, targeting Rick Pitino as replacement

St Johns has joined the coaching carousel after firing Mike Anderson.

St. John’s has decided to move on from head coach Mike Anderson according to CBS Sport’s John Rothstein and is eyeing Iona’s Rick Pitino to be his replacement. 

Anderson just finished his fourth season with the Red Storm, trying to help restore the program to its former glory. His departure comes after an 18-15 season including a 7-13 conference record, after beating Butler in the first round of the Big East Tournament, the Red Storm lost on Thursday to the top-seeded Marquette Golden Eagles 72-70 in the quarterfinals of the tournament.

Anderson departs St. Johnson’s despite leading the Red Storm to four-straight winning seasons and an overall record of 68-56. However, the Red Storm failed to make the NCAA Tournament during his tenure.

With his success not just at St. John’s but in his career overall with a career record of 437-256, Anderson should be a popular name this offseason in the coaching carousel and should be able to find another job quite easily if he looks to continue his coaching career. During his 21 years of coaching, he has led his programs to nine NCAA Tournament appearances.

As mentioned above, Rick Pitino appears to be St. John’s top target and has reportedly been vetting Pitino for several weeks.

The long-time head coach is currently in his third season with Iona, leading the program to the NCAA Tournament in his first season in 2020-2021 as well as back-to-back regular season titles each of the last two seasons.

Pitino, of course, is best known for his tenures at Kentucky and Louisville from 1989 to 1997 and 2001 to 2017 respectively. As a head coach, he has won two national titles, one at both Kentucky and Louisville while also leading his programs to seven Final Four appearances and 23 combined regular season or conference tournament titles.

While success has followed Pitino, the 70-year-old head coach has also had his fair share of scandals during his career including a “pay-to-play” scandal at Louisville that ultimately resulted in his departure as the Cardinals’ head coach..

While Pitino’s name is thrown around in these job searches, the Iona Gaels are preparing to play tonight in the MAAC Tournament Semifinals.