The St. John's basketball team dropped a disappointing loss in a recent game against Kentucky. St. John's head coach Rick Pitino just wasn't pleased with the effort he saw from his club.
The legendary head coach feels his squad is just barely above lackluster at this point in the campaign.
“We are a decent basketball team, nothing more than decent,” Pitino said, per the New York Post.
St. John's is now 7-4 on the year after taking a 78-66 loss to the Wildcats on Saturday. The Big East basketball team was exposed by the Kentucky squad. Pitino said his team's lack of an elite point guard hurt them in the game.
“That’s our fault in recruiting,” Pitino said, per the outlet. “We lost out on four different big-time point guards that we went after, and we’ve got to make the best of a situation by collectively [having] other people handling the ball and bringing it up.”
Kentucky improved to 8-4 with the victory on Saturday. The Wildcats have three straight victories.
St. John's is hoping to win the Big East again
The Red Storm had an outstanding 2024-25 campaign, that saw the club reach the NCAA Tournament. St. John's also won the Big East tournament championship.
The St. John's team is struggling in non conference play to begin the year. Against Kentucky St. John's struggled in the second half, allowing 53 points to the Wildcats.
“I feel like every person has to look themselves in the mirror and just realize that in order to have a successful season we have to be able to make some changes in our character, in ourselves personally,” St. John's forward Zuby Ejiofor said. “Everybody has to be committed to doing whatever it takes to win, as we did last year. Today, it really didn’t go exactly as planned, as far as just being the more physical team and getting those key rebounds.”
St. John's basketball next plays Harvard on Tuesday.
