St. John's Rick Pitino has been 'begging' Oziyah Sellers to let it fly, and he's been listening
St. John's Dillon Mitchell, left, and Oziyah Sellers celebrate after Sellers' three-pointer against Iowa State during the Players Era Championship basketball tournament game on Monday in Las Vegas, Nevada. Credit: Getty Images/Ian Maule
LAS VEGAS — St. John’s coach Rick Pitino removed the label and now he has unleashed Oziyah Sellers on every opponent the 14th-ranked Red Storm faces.
Seller was anointed before the season to be St. John’s starting point guard. While only two words, that carries a certain weight for breaking a press, initiating an offense and making sure everyone else on the team is in the offensive flow. As a result, the Stanford transfer with the rep as a great outside shooter, didn’t take many.
Pitino made a change for the Nov. 15 win over William & Mary, installing Dylan Darling as the starting point guard and moving Sellers off the ball to the wing. The 6-5 senior has been terrorizing foes on the three-point arc ever since.
It’s been especially evident for the Storm in the Players Era Festival. In their first two games — a one-point loss to No. 15 Iowa State Monday and a 15-point win over Baylor Tuesday — he scored a total of 42 points and made an aggregate 10 of his 13 three-point attempts, draining five in each.
He was looking to keep it going after scoring a season-high 22 points against the Bears as St. John’s took on No. 21 Auburn in a consolation matchup Wednesday night at Michelob Ultra Arena.
After Tuesday night's win, Pitino said he’d been “begging” Sellers to shoot the ball more. The message has finally settled in.
“Even in moments when I felt like I wasn’t really open, he wanted me to take it,” Sellers said. “Having that confidence from him makes me want to go out there and play free. So when I get the (three-point) opportunity, I will definitely take it.”
Entering play Wednesday, Sellers was making 54% of his three-point shots. The thing is, he didn’t take very many of them until Darling moved to the starting lineup. In the two games before that move, Sellers took just three shots from distance and missed them all. In four games since, he went 13-for-21.
In that William & Mary win, Sellers was 3-for-6 in three-point attempts. And afterward, he was asked about Darling taking over the point guard responsibilities.
“Dylan, he's a great point guard,” he replied. “He has great vision, so I feel like whenever I'm playing with him, he definitely finds ways to get me open. And I'm also used to playing off ball, so I feel natural playing that as well.”
After a season in which St. John’s had a lot of success despite not being able to make outside shots, Pitino had a strategy to bring in transfers known for making them. Sellers — who made 40% on the arc last season for the Cardinal — was part of the wave he brought in along with Ian Jackson from North Carolina, Darling from Idaho State and Joson Sanon from Arizona State.
The approach is beginning to pay dividends. Sellers is back to doing what he does best and the Red Storm is making 36.4% of its shots from distance.
Players Era 2026
This was the first year in a three-year commitment by St. John’s to participate in the Players Era Festival. When the Red Storm returns next season, it will look very different. The field is being expanded from 18 to 32 teams, with four fixed eight-team brackets and the four winners advancing to a championship and third-place game. Every participating team will still get $1 million in NIL money and the top four will still have chances to earn extra NIL from a $2 million prize pool.
This year’s tournament field included nine teams in the AP Top 25 and four others that were receiving votes. And it came through with several great games including six contests pitting ranked teams against one another, including Wednesday’s title match between No. 6 Michigan and No. 12 Gonzaga and the consolation with the 14th-ranked Red Storm against No. 21 Auburn.
But when pairings for each team’s third game were revealed after midnight ET Wednesday morning, there were head-scratchers that didn’t seem to hew to the format that has been announced, with soccer-style tiebreakers like point differentials and scoring average. The fifth of the five teams that were 2-0, No. 15 Iowa State, wasn’t matched against a top team that went 1-1 but rather 0-2 Syracuse. And No. 3 Houston and No. 8 Alabama were not paired and instead faced Notre Dame and Maryland, respectively.
The fixed-bracket format should resolve what many are calling shenanigans for the final matchups. While attendance was solid, it should also increase with fanbases having an idea of who they are playing instead of finding out at the last minute.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
