St. John's coach Rick Pitino said Monday that he stands by the criticism he leveled at his team Sunday night after the Red Storm blew a 19-point first-half lead in a 68-point home loss. -62 against their tri-state rival and fellow bubble team, Seton Hall.
The Hall of Fame coach, in his first season at St. John's, didn't hold back during a postgame news conference in which he questioned his players' toughness and mentioned several by name while describing their athletic deficiencies.
“Our lateral quickness and toughness is something I've never witnessed in all my years of coaching,” Pitino said Sunday night, adding, “We're so unathletic that we can't guard anyone without fouling.”
But Pitino, speaking to Newsday on Monday, insisted that he “wasn't really trashing anyone.”
“I was pointing out exactly, in a monotone voice, why we lost,” he told Newsday. “I'm not always calm and certainly not when I destroy someone… I wasn't destroying anyone.
“Sometimes I want my players to listen to my words and read them. That was my intention. [Sunday]”.
St. John's began the season with a 12-4 record, including wins over Utah, Xavier, Butler, Villanova and Providence. But the wheels have fallen off since then, with the Red Storm going 2-8 in their last 10 games to fall to ninth place in the Big East and outside the projected field for the NCAA tournament.
Pitino is struggling to find the right combination of players, even removing All-Big East big man Joel Soriano from the starting lineup against Providence last week due to inconsistency.
Soriano was among the players (“about five guys are slow laterally”) mentioned by Pitino who have difficulty moving defensively.
“They asked me, 'Why do you waste leads in the second half?' And I can tell you that sometimes free throws are missed at the end of the game and [opponents] free throws,” Pitino said Monday. “Sometimes, it's a turnover. Sometimes, it's poor shot selection that leads to breakaways. It is not always the same reason.
“But it's always the same reason why you foul: you foul because you make a bad shot, you get caught in a bad defensive situation and you're not very quick laterally. So when you go to [defend] the basket, instead of beating them to the point, you commit a foul. That's what I was trying to point out.”
Pitino also told Newsday that he didn't think it was necessary to clarify any of his comments from Sunday's news conference, saying, “I'm fine with what I said.”
Information from ESPN's Jeff Borzello was used in this report.
