Rick Pitino reminded everyone he is a master motivator last season when he got a St. John’s team with major shooting flaws to embrace rebounding and defense and then use those strengths to win the Big East Tournament title and finish 31-5. He got all he could out of those Red Storm players.
This St. John’s team has even more promise after adding the top-rated group of transfers, according to 247sports.com. It will go into the season ranked No. 5 nationally and is clearly viewed from the outside as a Final Four contender. But the Red Storm’s Hall of Fame coach is still coaxing.
St. John’s hosts Towson at Carnesecca Arena in the first of two exhibition games on Saturday as it tunes up for the Nov. 3 season opener. And at its on-campus media day Thursday, Pitino raised plenty of eyebrows when he said he was moving Dillon Mitchell into the starting lineup, replacing Bryce Hopkins and joining Zuby Ejiofor, Osiyah Sellers, Ian Jackson and Joson Sanon.
Hopkins, a 6-7 forward who was an all-Big East first-teamer at Providence in 2022-23 before a knee injury limited him to 17 games the past two seasons, has seemed a lock to start since he transferred. Pitino eschewed the move in saying that the starting five will change many times, but he is clearly looking for something out of Hopkins he’s not yet seen.
“He’s been ‘good’ and ‘solid’ the entire summer and now,” Pitino said. “I’m not after ‘good’ and I’m not after ‘solid.’ I’m after great and passionate. Once he reaches that ‘Mamba’ mentality that we’re trying to put forth in every player and as a team, I think you’re going to see one of the best players in the country.”
Pitino knows what it takes to reach a Final Four — he’s been to seven — and obviously believes coaxing more out of Hopkins is what’s required. He mostly shrugs off questions about the team’s potential, but the Storm players speak always with the caveat they must succeed in the present.
“It being our last year, it’s Final Four — it’s national championship — or bust,” Ejiofor said, referring to the more than half-dozen players St. John’s could lose to graduation or the NBA Draft.
“We have the pieces [and] we have the depth . . . to do something special,” Hopkins said. “That’s definitely the goal: Make it to last weekend in March or April and plan for the Final Four . . . but Coach has done a great job of telling us to stay focused every day.”
Asked about the Final Four talk, Pitino replied, “What I told them [is] it’s the goal of every big-time program to be a Final Four contender and, if we’re going to get there, this is what we have to do defensively and offensively. So I really didn’t talk about us trying to be a Final Four program. These are the things that you have to do to be a Final Four contender.”
Hopkins conceded that being told he’ll come off the bench stirs something in him.
“I guess I have to sit with him and ask him what he wants for me to do more of,” he said. “Whatever that may be, I’m willing to do it.”
Hopkins expects to be a better player than when he was named all-Big East. He said that the game has slowed down for him. He is down from his 230-pound playing weight three years ago to a chiseled 220 and it’s more athletic and given him greater endurance.
Towson was picked to win the Coastal Athletic Association title in a preseason poll of its coaches and is the new-look Storm’s first test. However, they will get an even bigger one the following Saturday in an exhibition against No. 7 Michigan at the Garden.
Pitino said that with three nationally-ranked foes among its first six regular-season games, he has tried to accelerate team development ahead of individual skills.
“We’ll find out a little bit more [Saturday] and certainly find out even more against Michigan,” he said. “So it’s exciting times . . . and we hope we’re progressing the correct way.”
Odih returns from pec injury
Kelvin Odih missed nearly two weeks of practice with a pectoral injury but returned for Thursday’s workout. The 6-4 freshman guard, who has been pushing for time in the Storm rotation since he arrived this summer, called it a “strain in the upper pec” and said, “I might have overdone it lifting [weights].”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.