![\"Rick](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2026-03-15T034118Z_1788817305_MT1USATODAY28501627_RTRMADP_3_NCAA-BASKETBALL-BIG-EAST-CONFERENCE-TOUR.jpeg\" "\\"Rick")
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Mar 14, 2026; New York, NY, USA; Big East commissioner Val Ackerman hands the championship trophy to St. John\u2019s Red Storm head coach Rick Pitino after St. John\u2019s defeated the Connecticut Huskies in the men\u2019s Big East Conference Tournament Championship game at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
The meandering mind of Rick Pitino cannot be contained, even in the heat of battle. So during St. John\u2019s dominating 72-52 victory over UConn for their second-straight Big East championship on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, he could not help but reminisce when he spotted former Red Storm guard Mark Jackson sitting courtside to see his alma mater play.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thirty-nine years ago, when Pitino took over as head coach of the New York Knicks ahead of the 1987-88 season following two years as an assistant, he drafted Jackson with the 18th-overall pick after the Brooklyn native \u2014 and one of the greatest basketball products ever to emerge from Brooklyn \u2014 starred under Lou Carnesecca during the golden age that was the mid-1980s for St. John\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Queens school had made it into the top 10 of the Associated Press\u2019 national rankings each year from 1982 to 1987, rising as high as No. 3 in the nation twice and making the Final Four in 1985.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was such a thrill for me because it brought back so many incredible memories of him flying a plane every time we scored into the press,\u201d Pitino said about Jackson, bringing up these memories just moments after the Red Storm cut down the nets at the Knicks\u2019 and Big East\u2019s home. \u201cTo have Mark here means a lot to me because it\u2019s the past.\u201d<\/p>\n
For as brilliant and well-traveled a career as Pitino has had, the present has provided his most important contributions, at least to New York. The 73-year-old has turned St. John\u2019s basketball around in just three years, taking it from a mediocre program stuck in the mud to one of the nation\u2019s elite.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the 21 seasons before Pitino\u2019s arrival in Queens, St. John\u2019s had made the NCAA Tournament just three times and posted just 10 years in which it finished above .500. Success in the Big East was non-existent, as it had not won a conference regular-season title since 1992 or a conference tournament since 2000.\u00a0<\/p>\n
By Pitino\u2019s second season (2024-25), St. John\u2019s won 30 games for the first time since 1985-86, then swept the conference regular-season and tournament titles to punch its first ticket to the Big Dance since 2019. Rising as high as No. 5 in the AP poll before finishing No. 11 in the nation, St. John\u2019s only won a single game at the NCAA<\/a> Tournament before getting ousted by John Calipari\u2019s Arkansas.<\/p>\n Still, goodwill with the committee remained, and a strong offseason, headlined by the transfer of Providence\u2019s Bryce Hopkins, had the Johnnies start the season ranked fifth in the country.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Then came the slow start. It started the season 4-3 after losses to Alabama, Auburn, and Iowa State. Less than a month into the season, they dropped to No. 23 before dropping out of the top-25 altogether following a loss to Kentucky on Dec. 20.<\/p>\n Perhaps the lowest point of the season came in a loss to Providence on Jan. 3, in the Red Storm\u2019s second conference game of the season.\n<\/p>\n Fourteen games in, 9-5. Not the follow-up many were expecting after losing five games in 36 games the season prior.\n<\/p>\n \u201cI told the guys in the locker room, I said, \u2018The one thing I always want \u2014 obviously you want \u2014 every coach wants to see the team get better and to peak at the right time,’\u201d Pitino said.\u00a0<\/p>\n And they did.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n St. John\u2019s nearly ran the table to end the year, going 19-1 \u2014 the lone loss coming to then-No. 6 UConn on Feb. 25 in blowout fashion, 72-40.\n<\/p>\n \u201cLook, my Louisville team lost to Providence by 32, and we went to the Final Four [in 2012],\u201d Pitino said. \u201cWe lost to Notre Dame by 31, and we went to an Elite 8 [in 2009]. I said it\u2019s meaningless. It\u2019s meaningless.\u201d<\/p>\n Of that final 20-game stretch, St. John\u2019s posted 11 double-digit victories, including each of their three Big East Tournament clashes over the weekend. They breezed by Providence by 13 before handing Seton Hall easily, though a 78-68 scoreline might suggest the semifinal was closer than it actually was.\u00a0<\/p>\n Saturday night\u2019s conference title game was a wire-to-wire smackdown, with the Johnnies starting on a 10-0 run and never looking back.\n<\/p>\n St. John\u2019s is officially back, and the developing perennial force to be reckoned with now just needs to start putting together some deep runs into the NCAA Tournament to clinch this as a pinnacle in the program\u2019s existence.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s so much history with St. John\u2019s, and we brought it all back in three years, not only with a high ranking, but the first time in the history of the school to win back-to-back regular-season titles, back-to-back tournaments,\u201d Pitino said. \u201cI\u2019m really proud. I know Louie is looking down on us with great pride. Joe Lapchick\u2019s looking down on us with great pride.\u201d<\/p>\n