St. John’s Coach Rick Pitino: ‘900 Wins Is Nice, But 1,000 Would Be Better’

Why have 900 when you could have 1,000? “Getting 900 [career wins as a head coach] is a nice thing certainly, but getting 1,000 would be a lot better,” Rick Pitino said on Wednesday night in a postgame press conference following St. John’s getting a 92-70 win over Butler. “That means I’ve got to be blessed with good health, good players and just keep recruiting, and the better you recruit, the better coach I am.” Pitino got win No. 900 last Saturday in a road victory over Xavier, whose head coach, Richard Pitino, is Rick’s son. After Wednesday, Pitino has 901 career wins as a collegiate head coach — split between his time as the head coach at Hawai’i, Boston University, Providence, Kentucky, Louisville, Iona and St. John’s — which is fourth in men’s college basketball history. Pitino is two wins away from tying Roy Williams for third place. As for the Red Storm’s win over the Bulldogs, Dillon Mitchell finished with 14 points, a game-high 13 rebounds, four assists and three blocks for St. John’s; Zuby Ejiofor had 15 points, six rebounds, five assists and three blocks; Ian Jackson had a team-high 18 points; Joson Sanon had 13 points in 19 minutes. The win moved St. Johns’s to 16-5 overall and 9-1 in Big East play, good for second in the conference. As for individual standouts, Ejiofor is averaging 15.7 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2.0 blocks and 1.2 steals per game; Bryce Hopkins is averaging 13.5 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game; Mitchell is averaging 9.7 points, 7.0 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game; Jackson is averaging 11.1 points per game; Oziyah Sellers is averaging 11.0 points per game. St. John’s is second in the Big East in points (85.4 per game) and third in field goal percentage (46.9%) and 3-point shooting percentage (35.8%). On the other end of the floor, the Red Storm are tied for third in the conference in opponent field goal percentage (42.6%), while being fourth in 3-point shooting percentage (33.5%) and fifth in opponent points (72.5 per game). The Red Storm are in their third season under Pitino, boasting a combined 67-23 record, highlighted by being a No. 2 seed in last season’s NCAA Tournament. Next up for St. John’s is a road matchup against DePaul on Feb. 3, followed by a ranked clash against No. 2 UConn at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 6 (8 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app).