Rick Pitino has worked wonders in his three years at St. John’s, and the Red Storm are on the cusp of their first Elite Eight trip since 1999 when they face top-seeded Duke on Friday night in the Sweet 16.
The 73-year-old legendary coach has proven he still has the ability to coach at an elite level, but he has also retained his sense of humor. During a Thursday press conference ahead of the Duke showdown, Pitino — who coached stints in the NBA with the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks — was asked about the NBA’s waning popularity amid college basketball’s growth.
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Pitino didn’t miss a beat in attributing a cause for that discrepancy.
“I think the resurgence of St. John’s,” he said with a wry smile.
The response garnered quite a few laughs from the press pool, and while there are likely other factors at play to explain the dynamic, Pitino has certainly put the Red Storm back on the college basketball map.
In the 24 years between St. John’s last Elite Eight trip and Pitino’s hiring in 2023, the program reached the NCAA tournament just five times, never advancing beyond the Round of 32. He has now led the Red Storm to back-to-back NCAA tournaments, winning its first March Madness game since 2000 last season and reaching the Sweet 16 for the first time since that 1999 run this year.
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The NBA will have to hope that St. John’s run ends on Friday, for the sake of its viewership.
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This article originally appeared on College Sports Wire: St. John’s Basketball: Rick Pitino jokes about NBA’s decline