Rick Pitino completely melted down after St. John’s loss to Seton Hall on Sunday. The 71-year-old head coach watched his team lost by six at home after taking a 12-point lead into halftime and proceeded to go scorched earth on every single person involved with the program.
Red Storm players wore the majority of the blame. Pitino did not hold back. He went so far as to say that this season is “the most unenjoyable experience of his lifetime” during the brutal postgame press conference.
Pitino’s frustration is easy to understand. St. John’s has not performed up to the standard he expects, and its most recent loss was its most dissapointing.
However, for the two-time* national champion to rip the players in such a brash manner was rather jarring. Even if Pitino is just speaking his truth.
One particular quote stands out as contradictory in nature. Pitino blasted his roster for, essentially, lacking talent.
We had to put a team together at the last second. We will never, ever do that again […]
We kind of lost this season with the way we recruited. We recruited the antithesis of the way I coach.
— Rick Pitino
That directly goes against what he said about his roster back in May. Pitino was very proud of his staff for their ability to recruit “11 quality athletes with great potential.” His words!
Pitino’s words on Sunday present a completely different narrative from his excitement last spring. They do not add up.
While it is possible for a college basketball coach to change his mind, to blame recruiting for your failures after touting your program’s ability to recruit as a great success is rather antithetical. Pitino cannot have it both ways. Either recruiting was good or recruiting was bad.
It would be a completely different conversation Pitino said that his staff did a great job recruiting talented players, but the talented players let him down. That’s not what he said.
Rick Pitino blamed recruiting for the Red Storm’s struggles this season after he showed a lot of excitement toward recruiting before the season.