There’s no more room for ambiguity.
Rick Pitino’s first season is going to go down as a massive disappointment.
The latest setback was the worst yet.
A blown 19-point lead to Seton Hall. A second half that was as abysmal as any St. John’s has played in recent memory.
The Johnnies’ sprint to flushing this once-promising season feels like it has hit the finish line Sunday with an ugly 68-62 setback at UBS Arena in front of 9,584.
And Pitino added to it with an eyebrow-raising press conference in which he spared nobody from criticism — not even himself or his coaching staff.
“I’ve been .500 in the first year, but I’ve always enjoyed the first year. I’m not going to lie to you, this is the most unenjoyable experience of my life,” the Hall of Fame coach said after the Johnnies lost for the eighth time in 10 games to all but kiss goodbye any shot at an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament. “Just because the game has to be played a certain way with fundamentals and this has been so disappointing.
“And really it’s not about losing, because even in winning when I watch the film, I see unathletic plays, I see people that don’t handle the ball, that are just interested in taking quick shots.”
Asked if he was second-guessing taking the job, Pitino responded: “It’s not St. John’s; it’s my team.”
It got so bad the home crowd booed late in the second half and at the horn.
It was hard to blame them. St. John’s (14-12, 6-9) led by 19 points late in the first half. It was up 12 at halftime.
Then, like so many of its recent losses, everything went haywire. The offense disappeared. The defense reverted to fouling. There was nobody able to settle the team down. Just one player after another committing mistakes at each end of the floor.
That 4-1 start in league play feels like it happened years ago, not months.
This marked St. John’s fourth loss in five games — and it has led at halftime in all of the defeats.
“The other team makes adjustments and we have to make adjustments to move the basketball and take good shots. We just lack toughness,” Pitino said. “We just don’t move our feet on defense. They shot 37 free throws. Throw out the stats, you see it every game. The amount of free throws they shoot and the amount of free throws we shoot. … It’s really all the toughness things that are why we give up leads.
“We kind of lost this season with the way we recruited. We recruited the antithesis of the way I coach, with speed, quickness, fundamentals, strength and toughness. We did not to do that. It’s a good group, they try hard, they’re just not very tough.”
The second half was as ugly as it gets. Seton Hall outscored St. John’s, 39-21.
The Johnnies started 1-for-15 from the field and didn’t get much better, finishing 8-for-33 from the field in the final 20 minutes.
They managed just two points in the paint until a few baskets in the final minute, were outrebounded by four and sent Seton Hall to the free-throw line 26 times.
Daniss Jenkins, yet again the best Johnnie, had 17 points, six assists and three steals, and Joel Soriano, back in the starting lineup after his benching, added 13 points and 12 rebounds. Al-Amir Dawes had 19 points for Seton Hall (17-09, 10-5) and Kadary Richmond followed with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
The loss leaves St. John’s without much to play for until the Big East Tournament, which nobody would’ve expected in mid-January.
“Believe me, it’s not the record I’m disappointed in at all. I could’ve told you this summer [what would happen],” Pitino said. “I had very high hopes because of what we were bringing in, and then after I spent the summer with them, I knew it was going to be a difficult year. I’m hoping we can finish over .500 on the season, then we’ll see what happens.”
Even that’s not a guarantee right now.
It’s no wonder Pitino called his first season in Queens so unenjoyable.
