Rick Pitino hilariously jokes about St. John's free throw woes in Marquette win
02/04/2025 11:33 PM
Year two running the show for St. John’s basketball is going better than even Rick Pitino himself could have expected, as the Red Storm is up to 20-3 on the season after a very impressive 70-64 win against Marquette. The matchup between two top 15 teams was decided on the defensive end, and Pitino’s squad was able to get just enough stops to get a huge win in Big East play.
One area where St. John’s fell short in this one was at the free throw line. The Johnnies finished the game shooting just 17-for-31 at the stripe and likely could have won the game going away if they had knocked down their freebies. After the game, Pitino had jokes for the poor shooting in his postgame interview.
Free throws can be killer sometimes
Bill Raftery caught up with @StJohnsBBall's Rick Pitino after the Red Storm's win over Marquette pic.twitter.com/nyqj2IcorG
— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) February 5, 2025
“Inside, I wanna kill myself. Outside, I just say ‘that’s okay, we’re gonna make the next one,'” Pitino said.
Pitino’s squad didn’t shoot the ball well from the outside in this one either, knocking down just three of their 16 3-pointers in this game. Thankfully for the Red Storm, Marquette didn’t have its best shooting night in this one either, finishing 8-for-25 from 3 and 12-for-18 at the free throw line.
St. John’s has what it takes to be a threat in March
After a pretty mediocre first year at St. John’s, Rick Pitino has completely turned the program around and has the Johnnies competing for a Big East Championship in year two. After Tuesday night’s big win, the Red Storm are up to 20-3 on the season, 11-1 in conference play and are on a nine-game winning streak.
Pitino has built an experienced St. John’s basketball team through the transfer portal that plays great defense and has really good, reliable guards in RJ Luis Jr., Kadary Richmond and Deivon Smith. The three of them form one of the best backcourt trios in the country, and any of them can step up on a given night. On Tuesday, Richmond and Luis scored 18 and 17 points, respectively, and both added 11 rebounds. Richmond also made a game-winner to knock off Providence on Saturday.
St. John’s also has a big man who roams the middle with the best of them. Zuby Ejiofor is averaging 14.4 points and 8.1 rebounds per game and is blocking nearly two shots a night, so he fortifies the defense on the interior.
Pitino and company have found a lot of their success at home, going 15-0 at Madison Square Garden so far this season. That could be a bad thing for St. John’s when it gets to the neutral court games in the NCAA Tournament, but its defense and its experience should travel and give it a real chance to make a deep tournament run.
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