St. John's enters Charleston Classic confident it will rebound from first loss under Rick Pitino
St. John's head coach Rick Pitino looks on in the second half against Michigan at Madison Square Garden on Monday, Nov. 13, 2023. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
CHARLESTON, S.C. — For those who follow St. John’s, Monday afternoon was a time to dream. Monday night was a time to wake up.
The first in-season AP Top 25 came out on Monday and the Red Storm were three spots out of the national rankings — call it 28th. With a victory that night against Michigan at the Garden, it wouldn’t be hard to envision a number appearing next to their name the following week. But St. John’s got whacked by the Wolverines, 89-73, waking all from the reverie.
The bad news is that St. John’s (1-1) is very much a work in progress as Rick Pitino tries to mold a squad with a dozen new players into the team everyone believes they can be. The good news is that the dream of a national ranking doesn’t have to die this week.
St. John’s on Thursday will play North Texas (2-0) in the first round of the Charleston Classic here at TD Arena, the first of three games in four days of the eight-team tournament. If the Red Storm can beat North Texas and the opponent coming out of the first-round game between LSU and Dayton on Friday, there could be a matchup against No. 6 Houston on Sunday. It would be hard to deny them a spot in the rankings after a win over the Cougars.
“The coaches did a really good job of getting people who really do love the game,” Valley Stream native Jordan Dingle said last week. “Four games in seven days sounds like a dream to all of us.”
But every day in between presents a challenge. The North Texas Mean Green won 31 games last season and the NIT. The two leading scorers after wins over Northern Iowa and Omaha are 6-7 Aaron Scott, who averaged 22 points and shot 64% on three-point attempts, and 6-2 Oklahoma transfer C.J. Nolan, who averaged 14.5 points. North Texas has given up 31 points off 22 turnovers in two contests.
Following the Michigan loss, Pitino pointed to a series of things the team must improve upon quickly, chief among them to play together when he said, “Even though we had a bunch of veterans they played as individuals.” He added that he expected the film review of the loss to make a big impression.
“They’ll be loaded for bear against North Texas because they’ll be very upset at themselves — we won’t even have to raise our voices,” Pitino said. “I always tell the players: The film never lies, it never lies . . . They’re going to watch it [Tuesday] and they’re going to be very embarrassed at their play.”
But he also pointed to some issues that could linger.
“We did a good job of putting this team together . . . but our frontcourt depth is terrible,” Pitino said. “You need to have five, six frontcourt guys. We have too much depth in the backcourt and not enough depth in the frontcourt.”
Right now there is a significant drop-off after starting center Joel Soriano and starting power forward Chris Ledlum. Ledlum played 16 minutes in the first half against the Wolverines and finished with four points on 1-for-7 shooting in 26 minutes. In terms of depth, Pitino called power forward “the weakest position we have.”
“I tried to let Chris play through it,” Pitino said. “His offense wasn’t great. His defense was even poorer . . . He’s a much better basketball player than he was [Monday].”
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.
