St. John’s head basketball coach, Rick Pitino. is clearly at his wit’s end, leveling a number of harsh criticisms at his own team after their Sunday night loss to Seton Hall, the team’s eighth loss in 10 games.
Pitino threw both his team and his school under the bus, blasting St John’s facilities as “shitty” and calling his team “unathletic.”
“We are so unathletic that we can’t guard anybody without fouling,” Pitino said to reporters after the game, according to a video posted to Twitter by NJ.com’s Adam Zagoria.
Here’s some video from the Rick Pitino show tonight https://t.co/TPLQ41Q4k4 pic.twitter.com/P8Hqheux3o
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) February 19, 2024
“For me, I’ve always enjoyed the first year, and I’m not gonna lie to you: This is the most unenjoyable experience of my lifetime. This has been so disappointing,” he continued, according to NJ.com.
Pitino then went one by one and specifically called out his players by name.
“Look, Joel [Soriano]’s slow laterally, he’s not fast on the court. Chris Ledlum is slow laterally, Sean Conway’s slow laterally. Brady [Dunlap]’s physically weak, Drissa [Traore] is slow laterally.”
Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a coach just come out and tell the world his players suck like this. (RELATED: This ESPN Investigation Into The Louisville Prostitution Claims Will Shock You [VIDEO])
Pitino, who is in his first season with St. John’s after coming over from Iona, brought in an entirely new team through the transfer portal, adding 12 new players to the squad, NJ.com reported.
“We kind of lost this season with the way we recruited,” he said, according to the outlet. “We recruited the antithesis of the way I coach. It’s a good group, they try hard, but they’re just not very tough.”
And I thought Doc Rivers was harsh.
In the age of mollycoddling and safe spaces, it’s next to impossible to get away with being this brutal but Pitino, with his championship pedigree, might be one of the few coaches left who can speak freely.
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – MARCH 19: Head coach Rick Pitino of the Louisville Cardinals reacts as Quentin Snider #4 looks on against the Michigan Wolverines in the first half during the second round of the 2017 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse on March 19, 2017 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Andy Lyons/Getty Images
While I think it’s a bit callous to go directly after the athleticism of your players, I can sympathize with his frustration over their ability to pick up simple instructions.
“I think they’re very respectful,” Pitino said in another video posted by Zagaria. “They hear but they don’t listen. It’s taken me a month to get them to throw bounce passes. Actually two months.”
More Rick Pitino postgame https://t.co/x9laERhqXO pic.twitter.com/CWQ3Q6DTJM
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) February 19, 2024
Pitino won a championship with the Kentucky Wildcats in 1996 and another with the Louisville Cardinals in 2013, though that title was vacated after an NCAA investigation revealed that a staffer paid escort services thousands of dollars in an effort to help recruiting.
I bet Pitino wishes he had some escorts in Queens this year. The former Greek national team coach, after he was done trashing his school and his players individually, turned his blaster sights on his staff’s recruiting efforts.
“We kind of lost this season with the way we recruited,” he said, per NJ.com. “We recruited the antithesis of the way I coach. It’s a good group, they try hard, but they’re just not very tough.”
Well buddy, good luck recruiting after these comments. If I was a rising high school senior choosing between playing for Pitino, who just called the entire class he coaches over slow and unathletic, and someone else, I know who I’d pick.