{"id":164177,"date":"2026-03-15T14:31:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T14:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/164177\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T14:31:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T14:31:15","slug":"st-johns-rick-pitino-reveals-what-big-east-win-means-for-new-york-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/164177\/","title":{"rendered":"St. John\u2019s Rick Pitino reveals what Big East win means for New York City"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. John\u2019s Rick Pitino reveals what Big East win means for New York City<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

St. John\u2019s basketball head coach Rick Pitino<\/a> visualized bringing roundball enthusiasm back to this New York university. He got Queens, N.Y. energized to see the Red Storm pound UConn 72-52 for the Big East title<\/a> Saturday.<\/p>\n

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The rout sealed new conference and school history<\/a> for St. John\u2019s. Plus added the latest Big East crown for the legendary head coach.<\/p>\n

Except he told SNY\u2019s Niki Lattarulo that he\u2019s more happier for the city<\/a>, and less for himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so happy for the team, so happy for our student body, the administration and the whole city. It means so much to the city,\u201d Pitino said. \u201cIt means so much for this coaching staff to work so hard, and get the fruits of your labor.\u201d<\/p>\n

St. John\u2019s win \u2018dream come true\u2019 for Rick Pitino?\"Wendell<\/p>\n

Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Pitino took over a program that hadn\u2019t gone to consecutive March Madness<\/a> tournaments since the late 1990s when Mike Jarvis was head coach.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFor me, it was a dream come true,\u201d Pitino said about winning this latest conference title.<\/p>\n

But he added gratitude for another New York institution for building him back up in Iona. Pitino believes that pit stop following his fallout at Louisville helped get him the St. John\u2019s job.<\/p>\n

The two-time national title winner also needed to lead his team past a Huskies squad that handed him his most embarrassing loss: A 72-40 pounding of the Red Storm back on Feb. 25<\/a>.<\/p>\n

St. John\u2019s looked more like the reigning conference champs in clamping down on defense and forcing multiple turnovers. But was Saturday all about revenge?<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt wasn\u2019t revenge. We were championship driven,\u201d Pitino said.<\/p>\n

Pitino, again, took over a team that endured underachieving seasons. St. John\u2019s qualified for only four March Madness bids during the 2000s decade. He\u2019s the first to deliver consecutive regular season and Big East tourney titles. The Queens region is now energized for the \u201cJohnnies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now his team aims to capture the school\u2019s third Final Four appearance and first-ever national title. St. John\u2019s awaits its NCAA Tournament fate<\/a> on Selection Sunday after 6 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n

Related: Mick Cronin shares moment with Fletcher Loyer, Braden Smith after Purdue win<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Rick Pitino\u2019s postgame F-bomb is the most New York thing ever<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. John\u2019s Rick Pitino reveals what Big East win means for New York City appeared first on ClutchPoints.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7729,9,24,55,54,1700,67527,56,67528,3362,67526],"class_list":["post-164177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-big-east","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-york-university","tag-niki-lattarulo","tag-ny","tag-red-storm","tag-rick-pitino","tag-st-johns-plus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}