St. John's basketball wasn't through changing the culture after its 2025 March Madness return. Head coach Rick Pitino took a long look at the roster following the Red Storm's upset loss to Arkansas. Now St. John's is a rising favorite to win it all this time around.
But Pitino revealed Thursday what needed to change to bring the Red Storm back to this stage.
“Last year, we had a terrific team. We knew all the players. This year we just went after culture guys, guys that we felt were really going to play for the name on the front, not worried about stats or making it somewhere else,” Pitino said to reporters inside Viejas Arena in San Diego.
And those players “Just totally bought in” as the national champion winner said. But which players led the resurgence?
The St. John's difference makers for Rick Pitino
Pitino cited three players who led the resurgence while teaming with lead scorer and key St. John's returner Zuby Ejiofor.
“We spent so much time interviewing and researching every individual from Dillon Mitchell, to Bryce Hopkins, to Dylan Darling, to Oziyah Sellers — every single guy we did our homework and beyond that, and we got great culture guys and it's paid off very well for us,” Pitino said.
Mitchell lured experience from Texas and Cincinnati in tow to Queens, N.Y. Hopkins arrived via Big East rival Providence but also started out with Kentucky (where Pitino won his first national title). Sellers helped reignite Stanford one year ago and played at USC to start his CBB career.
Hopkins rose as the second-leading scoring option at 13.5 points per game. Sellers follows with his 10.7. Darling is the steals leader in averaging 1.4 per game.
All three will help spearhead this Red Storm run. Pitino is aiming to get St. John's past the round of 32 for the first time since the 1999 tournament. St. John's versus Northern Iowa tips off at 7:10 p.m. ET.
