Insanity (noun): Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein’s famous definition of the term is the perfect way to describe the 2023-24 St. John’s men’s basketball team.
In their last four losses, head coach Rick Pitino and company led after the first half, just to falter in the second. Sunday night’s 68-62 loss to Seton Hall offered much of the same.
Dominating the opening stretch, St. John’s outclassed the visitors in every facet. They were visibly tougher than Seton Hall, driving Pirates’ head coach Shaheen Holloway to commit a technical foul late in the period. This incident sparked fires inside Al-Amir Dawes (19 pts., 3 rebs.) and Kadary Richmond (18 pts., 11 rebs.), completely swinging the momentum in Seton Hall’s favor.
The Red Storm headed into the break leading 41-29, thanks to near perfect first half efforts from Joel Soriano (13 pts., 12 rebs.), Daniss Jenkins (17 pts., 6 assts.) and Jordan Dingle (9 pts., 3 rebs.). The trio combined for 28 points, nearly outscoring the Pirates themselves.
Surely, they couldn’t blow another big halftime lead, could they?
Of course they could.
After possibly their most complete display of the season, St. John’s opened the second half scoring only four points in 11:27 of play. A Sean Conway triple and RJ Luis Jr. free throw was all the Red Storm could muster, opening the door for a Seton Hall comeback. The Pirates took this opportunity and ran with it, orchestrating an 18-4 run and claiming the lead.
Despite multiple attempts to rediscover their first half selves, St. John’s once again came up just short. After squandering multiple leads over some of the Big East’s top contenders, the Red Storm’s hall-of-fame coach now finds himself in unfamiliar territory.
“If I said I was disappointed, that would be the understatement of the year,” Pitino announced. “Our toughness is just something I’ve never witnessed in all my years of coaching. I’ve always enjoyed the first year. I’m not going to lie to you, this [has been] the most unenjoyable experience in my lifetime.”
Of all of Pitino’s gripes, he was most displeased with his team’s lack of lateral quickness.
“It’s really, really difficult if you can’t move your feet and guard people laterally without fouling. You’re not going to win a whole lot of games.”
With a NCAA Tournament berth nearly out of reach, the 71-year-old is approaching the remainder of the season “one game at a time.”
The now scrambling Johnnies head to our nation’s capital on Feb. 21 to take on Georgetown (8-14) in their first meeting of the season. In what would have been considered a potential easy victory just a few weeks ago, St. John’s now faces heavy pressure against first-year head coach Ed Cooley and the Hoyas.
