It’s impossible to dispute the impact Rick Pitino has had in his 54-game tenure with St. John’s. The Johnnies were playing as well as anyone last year when the NCAA Tournament decided to treat the Big East like a mid-major. The three games they’ve lost this year have been by five skinny points.
They’ve brought basketball life back to Utopia Parkway, brought energy back to Carnesecca Arena and Madison Square Garden. As Pitino himself says often, “This is a team Lou Carnesecca would be very proud of,” and the fact is you could add Joe Lapchick and Frank McGuire to that list of former St. John’s coaches enjoying this season from celestial courtside seats.
But what we saw Tuesday night at Washington’s Capital One Arena was something else. Across the first 20 minutes, the Johnnies played nearly flawless ball on the way to leads of 23-3 and 41-11 before settling for a final verdict of 66-41. More to the point was something else:
For the first extended period of time, this looked like a vintage Pitino team. They played frantic, ferocious defense. They ran the ball when they had the numbers, zipped it around when they didn’t. They even made six 3s! (Though they also missed 15. But they kept shooting ’em, which is one of the golden Pitino rules).
