“Fundamentally Poor”: Rick Pitino Makes Honest Assessment of St. John’s Preseason Games

Rick Pitino’s St. John’s go into the new season after an undefeated 3-0 preseason. They faced Drexel, Rutgers and No. 7 Texas in the three exhibition games.

St. John’s won 104-99 in a four-overtime thriller against Rutgers on Oct. 18. After the game, Pitino said that if they play like that against the Longhorns, they’d lose by 40 points. Broadcaster John Fanta asked Pitino about that comment and how he would rate the 87-74 win over Texas on Sunday. Pitino talked about the new-look team.

“We have 11 new players, and we lost Zuby (Eljofor), who was the heart and soul of our basketball team, along with two other draft choices, Bryce Hopkins and Dillon Mitchell. We have a good, talented basketball team, but they’re fundamentally very poor,” Pitino said.

“First of all, if you listen to a word I say in preseason in trying to get my team up for things, you’d be foolish because nothing I say is relevant or the truth. Rutgers has played extremely well. They’re a good basketball team, much better than people think,” he said about his comments after the Rutgers game.

Rick Pitino grades St. John’s preseason games

Despite a perfect preseason record, Pitino wasn’t overly impressed with his team. He believes his players have a long way to go and need to improve a lot.

“I graded out. (On) my grading system, a C-minus. Now, Rutgers was an F and Drexel was a D. And to be perfectly honest with you, this time of year, you’re probably going to grade your team a C or a C-plus. If you’re in B, you’ve got yourself a really special team,” he said.

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