St. John's 70 Marquette 64

Cactus Jack · 02-05-2025, 12:43 AM

Rick Pitino exorcises the ghosts of 1994 and knocks off Shaka Smart and the Golden Eagles.

**Old School Hound** · 02-05-2025, 01:57 AM

Pitino still has it. His moral failures aside, the guy is still one of the best in the sport.

Cactus Jack · 02-05-2025, 02:55 AM

(02-05-2025, 01:57 AM)Old School Hound Wrote: Pitino still has it. His moral failures aside, the guy is still one of the best in the sport.

Pitino never lost it.

His knock has probably been that, while he's great at game-planning, if you are able to anticipate and beat what he comes out with, he's a "good but not great" counterpuncher, but there are few who've really been able to get him to that point.

Pitino's best teams, which were largely an effect of his recruiting, always had a type. Tough as nails guards, highly rated wing, utility big (either an enforcer who can defend and rebound out of his area or a kid with length that can step out onto the floor and hit shots), and a project big man that he'd developed skill-wise and/or worked into shape.

I'm not saying that he doesn't have the bigs that you'd see on his ideal roster, but I don't know that he has a big like I've described. There's no Antoine Walker, Nazr Mohammed, or Gorgui Dieng on this roster.

Richmond is his Mercer or Mashburn. He has some Epps/Taquan Deans. He has a Prickett/Riddicks and a Padgett/Hancock. But the big is the missing piece.

**-STAT-** · 02-05-2025, 05:34 PM

I'll agree that he never lost it, and I'll go as far to say that he is not only ONE of the best in the sport, but simply is THE best in the sport. Gotta look at the hires that St John's have made over the years, they've done everything possible to try and stay relevant and bring back the glory days of the 80's, and every hire just couldn't cut it, then you bring in Pitino, who in his first year had some ups & downs, had his team playing better than anyone in the country toward the end of the season, only to get snubbed from the tournament.

They passed the first test of this week against a good Marquette team, part 2 comes Friday as they travel to UConn to take on the 2x defending National Champions. Other than Kentucky, I'll be rooting for St. Johns all the way.