The St. John’s basketball team is getting ready for an NCAA Tournament run, and Red Storm fans will rightfully feel like this could be their best shot at a championship in recent memory. Rick Pitino has revived college basketball in New York and has St. John’s rolling into the NCAA Tournament as a No. 2 seed.
Pitino has risen back to the top of college basketball after spending a few seasons overseas and at Iona since getting fired from Louisville, and he is just glad to be back in the Big Dance with a chance to make a run at St. John’s, according to Mike Reiss of ESPN.
“I don’t know if God will bless me with two, three, four more years, but if he does, it’s going to stop,” the St. John’s head coach said, per Reiss. “So why not have a blast? Why not get the most out of it? Laugh, have fun, get great experiences.
“Early years it wasn’t like that, trying to move up the ladder. You’re trying to accomplish certain things collectively, with the team, yourself. Now I don’t have to move up the ladder. I don’t have to look for another job. I don’t have any dreams of coaching elsewhere, so it’s just fun. It’s laughter, it’s all the great things, but I do know it’s coming to an end.”
Pitino’s squad will take on Omaha in the first round before a possible blockbuster Round of 32 matchup against either Bill Self and Kansas or John Calipari and Arkansas. If St. John’s can make it to the second weekend in the West region, Texas Tech, Florida and Maryland are the other top-four seeds in the region.
St. John’s should be riding high coming into this tournament after winning both the regular season and conference tournament titles in the Big East. After a stellar regular season, Pitino’s squad backed it up with wins over Butler, Marquette and Creighton to win the tournament championship at Madison Square Garden. Now, this St. John’s basketball team is hoping to cut down the nets at the end of another tournament in a few weeks.
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