The UConn Huskies have won the national championship in men's basketball, and new St. John's basketball coach Rick Pitino took to Twitter to congratulate the Huskies on their fifth national championship in program history.
“Much respect goes out to the UConn Huskies,” Rick Pitino said on Twitter. “You dominated at both ends of the floor throughout the entire tournament. Truly remarkable performance!!”
It was a dominant performance throughout the NCAA tournament for Dan Hurley's UConn basketball program. They won all six of their tournament games by double digits, with the championship against San Diego State coming by a score of 76-59. The Huskies went 17-0 against non-Big East opponents this season, winning all of those games by double digits.
The first game of the NCAA Tournament for UConn came against Rick Pitino's Iona Gaels. Dan Hurley's Huskies won the game by the score of 87-63. Pitino's Gaels had a 39-37 lead at halftime, but the talent difference was just too much to overcome in the second half, as UConn outscored Iona 50-24 in the win.
After the game, Rick Pitino told Dan Hurley that his team has what it takes to go the whole way.
“Win it all. Take it home. You've got the team to do it,” Pitino said to Hurley, according to Jeff Goodman of Stadium.
Pitino is now taking over UConn's Big East conference rival with the St. John's basketball program. He will look to bring St. John's back to prominence and compete with Hurley's Huskies and other strong programs like Creighton, Marquette and Xavier.
With Pitino joining the conference, it will be interesting to see how quickly he can have success.