Inside St. John’s quick rise: Defense, relentlessness and the Rick

• Jeff BorzelloMar 5, 2025, 10:00 AM ET Close Basketball recruiting expert.

• Joined ESPN in 2014.
• Graduate of University of Delaware.NEW YORK– The

crowd of UConn fans at Madison Square Garden was beginning to get loud.After jumping out to a 22-point

lead versus the two-time protecting champ, St. John’s seemed giving it all away. In four minutes, the Huskies cut the lead to nine, requiring Rick Pitino to call a timeout.But before the coach could get a word in, Zuby Ejiofor chimed in.”We got in a huddle, and Zuby said,’Look, we’ve battled injuries. We don’t wilt. We’ve been there previously. We know what to do,'” Pitino said.The Red Storm immediately pushed the lead back to double digits, where it would remain the remainder of the game, travelling to an 89-75 win.It was a far cry from what unfolded almost a year ago to the day, when St. John’s had fallen in your home to Seton Hall in a 68-62 loss Feb. 18, 2024. After that loss, Pitino unloaded on his players, calling the season “the most unenjoyable experience I have actually had since I’ve been coaching.””We recruited the reverse of the way I coach, with speed, quickness, principles, strength and strength,”

Pitino went on to tell the media that day.” It’s a great group, they strive, but they’re simply not really difficult.”But just like the turnaround in that late-February win over UConn, the Red Storm have actually taken advantage of their spirit of relentlessness to go from the middle of the Big East standings to winning their very first outright regular-season title because 1985– and becoming a genuine Final Four competitor in between Pitino’s very first and second seasons with the program.There have actually been incorrect dawns for the revival of St. John’s basketball previously, however this project has actually felt different. One season removed from missing out on the NCAA competition entirely,

the Red Storm have accomplished their highest national ranking (No. 6) because Lou Carnesecca, clad in his signature sweatshirts, took them to No. 5 during the 1990-91 season. And they’re doing it in a distinctly “New York basketball “sort of method– with Brooklyn native Kadary Richmond leading on the court, another Hall of Fame coach strolling the sideline, and aggressiveness and relentlessness on both ends. Kadary Richmond matched Zuby Ejiofor’s 18 points in Feb. 23 St. John’s win over UConn.

AP Photo/Seth Wenig It’s the type of team longtime Johnnies fans have actually welcomed in the past, the type they were desperate to see again at the Garden, with Pitino as their white whale.Now the question is: Can this year’s St. John’s team do what even the teams led by Carnesecca and Chris Mullin could not and win a national championship?Pitino sat at a conference table in his office in late October 2023, a couple of weeks before his very first season at St. John’s was set to start. It didn’t take long for him to express concern about the defense. “The hard thing, however, is teaching 12 or 13 guys who were all the very best offensive player on their team and they do not understand how to play defense,”Pitino told ESPN at the time.”Got the very best player at

VMI, the very best player at Penn, the very best player at Harvard, the best player– or a great player– at UMass, all actually good offensive players. Can’t protect anybody. So they’re all good offensive players, but their specialty is not defense.”His assessment was ideal: St. John’s enabled more than one point per possession in 20 of its 33 games last season.( This season’s team has enabled just 8 opponents to hit that mark.)In Pitino’s 16 seasons at Louisville, the Cardinals ranked top-10 nationally in adjusted protective performance 10 times, including No. 1 3 times. His last team at Kentucky( 1997 )also ranked very first overall at that end of the flooring, while each of his three teams at Iona (2020-23)ranked first or second in the MAAC in defensive efficiency.Those groups were predicated upon length, athleticism, pushing the ball, turning groups over and obstructing shots. They made teams uncomfortable.Red Storm associate head coach Steve Masiello– a walk-on at Kentucky under Pitino and, later on, among his assistants at Louisville from 2005 to 2011– stated the urgency in building a totally brand-new lineup in Pitino’s first offseason at St. John’s suggested that particular things often went neglected.”When we took the job, we attempted to take the very best players offered … check as lots of boxes. Those guys were great, however we didn’t check enough boxes, “Masiello informed ESPN.”We had our shortages defensively, and as we were going through the year, we said we had to resolve those shortages.”Editor’s Picks 2 Associated Masiello went down to Houston in

the offseason to view Kelvin Sampson’s group for a few days, just to get some new ideas and prospective tweaks from what has been one of the country’s best defenses for the previous several years. And when the Red Storm coaches took a look at players to include, they had 2 primary goals, Masiello stated: “Length and athleticism. Those

need to be 2 of

the most crucial things we determine in this transfer website.”Rather of pursuing low-and mid-major transfers, Pitino and his personnel focused on players who had actually currently proved they might handle the physicality and speed of high-major basketball. Richmond, who spent 3 years at Seton Hall, was one of the best players in the Big East; Deivon Smith had actually played in the SEC, ACC and Pac-12; Vince Iwuchukwu transferred from USC; and Aaron Scott was a tested 3-and-D player from North Texas. “I think the coaching staff did a really excellent job of just bringing new pieces to this group that were going to be really bought in,”Ejiofor informed ESPN.”And the core guys, the returning guys from in 2015, were simply basically preaching how important defense is and precisely what it takes, and you see exactly what it shows when everyone’s linked on the protective end.”Returning players have actually delighted in the natural jump that comes with being in Pitino’s program for a complete season. RJ Luis has improved defensively en path to emerging as one of the very best players in the Big East, while Ejiofor has developed into a switchable frontcourt protector who can hold his own versus a range of positions.”Gamers, when they’re here in a short window, they think offense is going to get them to where they wish to go,”Pitino told ESPN.”

And I have actually encouraged this group that– we use the term about getting on Broadway. I stated if you want to display your abilities, winning is the only thing that does that. You’ll never get the chance. You’ll always be off-Broadway, and no one will see you play.” If you get on Broadway, then it’s just a matter of, are your skills

good enough? But up until that point, the only way you can get there is through your defense and winning.” St. John’s has developed into among college basketball’s elite defenses as an outcome of these season-over-season changes, with Pitino often using the word”ruthless”to describe his team’s character at that end of the flooring. The Red Storm lead the Big East in scoring defense and basket portion defense, with opponents scoring less than 66 points per game and shooting listed below 40% from the field. The Johnnies also rank inside the leading 20 nationally in defensive turnover percentage, 2-point portion defense, block percentage and steal percentage.In the Feb. 23 matchup with UConn, the Red Storm scored 24 points off 18 turnovers for the Huskies, leaving Dan Hurley searching for responses.”The pressure is something,”Hurley stated after the game. “Obviously it’s troubling to start your possession just surviving to get the ball inbounds versus the pressure. However then I do not even think it’s the full-court pressure with them. I simply believe it’s the positionless switching that they have the ability to do, on-ball, off-ball, the veer switching. And then what makes it obviously work is just having all these huge wings that are grown men

, bodies, these guys are physical, and then Ejiofor. When Ejiofor gets out on guards, it’s difficult to take benefit of that, his motion and his capability to remain on the ball. “They remind me of Houston, just what they do to you defensively and on the glass.” Then Hurley asked the concern that the majority of threatens St. John’s title hopes: Is an elite defense and strong offensive rebounding enough to win a title, provided St. John’s shooting woes? play 0:47 Rick Pitino, Dan Hurley respond to St. John’s win over UConn Rick Pitino and Dan Hurley share their ideas after St. John’s road win against Connecticut.”They’ve got a championship-level defense,”Hurley stated.”I believe they have championship-level offending rebounding, and undoubtedly how their season goes from here is going to, in large part, boil down to being able to make adequate shots.”

On the season, the Red Storm are seventh in the Big East in offending effectiveness– they rank last in 3-point shooting percentage and next-to-last in 2-point percentage and free toss percentage.

They

likewise

rank near the bottom of Department I in almost every border shooting category: 3-pointers per game, 3-point portion, 3-point effort rate, percentage of total points from 3-pointers.”I seem like we still have yet to show our offending power,”guard Simeon Wilcher stated.”We just need to click. It is going to click at the right time.””I would just state that we stay with what we’re proficient at, “Ejiofor added.”We’re not a bad shooting group at all. We got truly a few of the best shooters in the Big East, and it displays in practice and the team advancement workouts too. So once we get spacing right and speed right, I believe we’re going to be a really unique team, specifically on the offensive end.”For its part, St. John’s has revealed flashes of improvement from 3-point range in current weeks. The Red Storm made 11 shots from deep versus Villanova and nine versus DePaul, then went 8-for-16 from behind the arc in the first half against UConn.And Pitino does have experience taking teams that struggled shooting the 3 on deep runs in the NCAA competition. His 2012 Louisville team shot simply 31.8 %from 3 and still reached the Final 4. His 2013 team shot 33.3%and ranked 13th in the Big East in portion of overall points from threes and still won its since-vacated national title. And his 2015 group ranked in the 300s nationally in 3-point percentage and still advanced to the Elite Eight.In reality, the 2 closest efficiency profiles to this St. John’s team at BartTorvik are

2012 Louisville and 2015 Louisville.” I believe we’re going to get much better shooting the basketball,” Pitino told ESPN.”I believe we’re coming out of that slump.” I’m not concerned about the 3-point shot. I am concerned about our complimentary toss shooting, since in the NCAA competition, it comes down to complimentary toss shooting a great deal of times.”Men’s Tournament Challenge Register now to play the # 1 Guy’s bracket game for FREE!$ 135,000 in prizes.