The Knicks traveling to Florida for a few days to face the Heat and the Magic, Madison Square Garden was available on Tuesday and the Mecca of basketball therefore hosted a press conference to formalize the arrival of Rick Pitino head of the basketball program St. John’s.
After three seasons on the side of the small college of Iona, in New Rochelle in the suburbs of New York, the legendary (but controversial) tactician with 834 career victories therefore arrives in Queens to offer himself in his hometown a last big challenge: to restore the image of the Red Storm in the Big East conference, in which the program has been vegetating in mediocrity for several years now.
Madison Square Garden, HQ of renewal?
It is therefore logically around this observation that his speech was centered yesterday: he wants to rebuild, then bring back St. John’s in spheres of excellence that the program once occupied. Without grilling the steps, knowing that the program, which has not won a single match in “March Madness” nor reached the final of the Big East conference tournament since 2000, is starting from a very long way.
” I said [à la direction athlétique] that the most important thing this program lacks is an identity. And yet it is the first stone to be laid. A culture for the program, but also a culture of academic excellence » he asserted thus without detour, by way of presenting its vision of the project. ” If the kids who want to play here don’t plan to attend class, then they can go their own way. Anyone who doesn’t respect what I call the dignity of St. John’s will not be on the team. »
On the sporting level, the double champion with Kentucky and Louisville (1996 and 2013) announces high standards there too.
” I want to make it one of the top twenty programs in the country. I want to go back to Louie’s time [Carnesecca, le coach le plus victorieux de l’histoire du programme, ndlr]when they were a perennial force that inspired awe, not just in the Big East but across the country he continues. ” And you can imagine that I would not have accepted the job if I did not think it was possible to achieve it. […] Get ready, because St. John’s is going to come back to the top. I guarantee it. »
To achieve this precisely, Rick Pitino, before speaking roster or tactics, has a great “logistical” ambition: to make Madison Square Garden, which hosts the Big East conference tournament each year, the cauldron of the Red Storm, he who knows the lair of Penn Plaza well since he has spent four years with the Knicks (from 1983 to 1985 as an assistant, and from 1987 to 1989 as a coach).
Ambition, again and again
” We are going to double the total number of subscriptions for the year, cause traffic jams to enter the Garden and come to see this team play. “He promises then, ensuring at the same time that the Carnesecca Arena in Queens and its 5,000 seats would very quickly be too small to accommodate everyone. ” Fans are going to see a strong style of play and culture, so we’re expecting big attendances. We expect a lot of enthusiasm because we will build a project that will recall that of the great era of Louie [Carnesecca]. »
Finally, the 70-year-old tactician evokes the Big East, a conference in which St. John’s has plateaued for several years in the soft underbelly, at best, but more concretely at the bottom of the table.
” It won’t be complicated. There is no difference between St. John’s and Connecticut, St. John’s and Marquette, St. John’s and Xavier” he launches on this subject, always with the same insurance but a bit of bad faith, while the Johnnies have however won only 30 of their 76 games in the Big East over the past four seasons. ” St. John’s is a legendary name in college basketball. Is the program on a slippery slope? Yes, but now we are ready to start again on an upward slope. »
