Rick Pitino, wearing a black jacket and red tie, received a standing ovation on Tuesday night. St. John’s defeated Stony Brook 90-74 and started the new era at 1-0.
Most importantly, it was fun. That is something of great importance to the legendary coach as he begins his final chapter.
As the rejuvenated crowd in Queen cheered, Pitino waved his arms and gave a big fist pump to his family and friends. The Red Storm, after losing an exhibition game to a D-II program, looked great.
Senior center Joel Soriano scored a team-high 22 points. 16 of them came in the second half.
Rick Pitino was the motivating factor for his big night.
He said some things to me at halftime and fired me up. Tonight, he was on the guys for pretty much every little thing we did wrong. I would say his intensity level is pretty much what brought us a lot of energy. We saw him getting fired up and it fired us up. I loved the way he coached us today.
— Joel Soriano about his head coach
Intensity is something that Pitino is most known for. He has always been fiery and passionate.
His ‘Not Walking Through That Door’ rant is legendary.
He nearly fought a fan in 2017.
The 71-year-old is not one to mince his words. Even while he was coaching in Greece.
Pitino, who began his 48th season of coaching basketball on Tuesday night, and 36th on the D-I level of college basketball, is still just as passionate. The intensity has not wavered.
However, Pitino is self-admittedly not as hard to play for than he was in the past. He is taking a different approach to the final stop of his career.
I think I’m more passionate today at 71 than I was at 51. I’m enjoying that aspect, and I love teaching.
Someone was saying that I was tough to play for, and without question I was. But I’m very easy to play for now.
It’s not that Greece made me mellow, but I really want to be more passionate than I’ve ever been and have more fun than I’ve had. And I’m having a blast with these guys. We play hard but we laugh a lot.
I think sometimes in my early years, laughter wasn’t something that Antoine Walker or Mark Pope or Peyton Siva or Russ Smith would describe. With today’s young people, laughter is very important to have on your basketball team and we have that.
— Rick Pitino
If it wasn’t clear in his words, Pitino’s face was full of joy as he said it.
St. John’s was picked to finish fifth in a very tough Big East Conference this season. Pitino has an extremely talented roster and nearly five decades of experience.
He has seen the way that college athletics have change. He sees that his athletes today need a different style of coaching that includes more laughter.
Another interesting element is the transfer portal. Most of Pitino’s players are in their first year with the program, just like him. Many of them are fourth or fifth year seniors.
Where Pitino used to coach college basketball players who got on campus as 18-year-old freshman, much of his team is 20 years of age or older. That has forced him to adapt, and he did.
The Red Storm is 1-0!