St. John's basketball broke into the top 20 by stunning UConn. Now head coach Rick Pitino entered a notable top three list after beating Xavier on Monday.
Per St. John’s stats, here’s where the legendary head coach now stands among the all-time wins list:
“Tonight marked the 904th win of Rick Pitino’s career. He now holds sole possession of third place on the all-time Division I men’s basketball wins list, trailing only Mike Krzyzewski (1,202) and Jim Boeheim (1,116),” the account posted on the social media website X, formerly known as Twitter.
Pitino has often been compared to both revered national champion winning head coaches from Duke and Syracuse, respectively. Now the 73-year-old is closing on the 1,000 victories club – which only has the aforementioned two.
How St. John’s toppled Xavier for latest win
The Red Storm hit another mark while Pitino made his own personal history.
“The Red Storm’s 41 free throw tries were the most by a St. John’s team since Nov. 9, 2011, when the Red Storm attempted 44 free throws against Lehigh,” St. John’s stats revealed.
But the white stripe wasn’t the only place where St. John’s became dominant against the Musketeers.
The Red Storm out-rebounded Xavier 48-40 on the night. They also pounded their Big East rivals by hitting 48 points in the paint. St. John’s also grabbed six steals compared to Xavier’s five.
Zuby Ejiofor scored 25 points and nearly came away with the double-double by pulling in seven rebounds. Bryce Hopkins emerged as another double-double threat – dropping 19 points and grabbing nine rebounds.
Ozyiah Sellers added 11 points as the third starter to surpass the 10-point mark. Dylan Darling led the bench scoring by hitting 16 points.
St. John's now has won 10 in a row including taking down the ranked UConn Huskies on Saturday.
