Rick Pitino’s Petty Proposal After St. John’s Loss to Duke Actually Makes a Lot of Sense

St. John’s coach Rick Pitino made an intriguing point after his team lost to Duke in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament on Friday night. | Amber Searls-Imagn Images

St. John’s coach Rick Pitino was upset on Friday for two reasons: one, his team got eliminated by Duke in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA tournament, ending their hopeful title run. Two, he had to wait a chunk of time after the game before giving his press conference, as is standard per NCAA media protocols.

Pitino voiced his grievances about that media rule right at the start of his presser as his players were taking their seats at the table:

“One suggestion for the NCAA is, when you have interviews on the court for Duke, for the winning team, and they have time there, the game started before we even came in here,” Pitino said after St. John’s loss to Duke on Friday night. “Just have the losing team go first. Because you left us disappointed in the locker room while the other team’s celebrating, rightfully so.

“You should let the losing team go first, and then let the winning team have as long as you want. Just a suggestion. Because you just left us hanging out there for over a half hour.”

Rick Pitino: not a fan of the NCAA postgame media protocols 😳

"You should let the losing team go first, and then let the winning team have as long as you want. Just a suggestion. You just left us hanging out there for over a half hour"pic.twitter.com/jyz9wb0ET1

— The Field of 68 (@TheFieldOf68) March 28, 2026

Some on social media thought Pitino was being petty in his pointed criticism of the NCAA, given that his Red Storm just saw their season end in a brutal 80-75 defeat against the tournament favorites.

A brief dive into the NCAA’s media protocols reveals that it is indeed customary in the early rounds of the tournament for the losing team to speak with the press after the winning team does.

The winning team will appear in the news conference first, after a five-minute cooling-off period. After the cooling-off period expires, the head coach and a minimum of two student-athletes shall be escorted to the interview room for a postgame press conference not to exceed 12 minutes.

The losing team will have a 15-minute cooling-off period before its locker room opens to the media for 30 minutes. ... After the winning team’s coach and players have left the interview room area, the losing team’s coach and players shall go on the dais for a postgame press conference not to exceed 10 minutes.

This also applies in the regional semifinal and the national semifinal, but curiously doesn’t apply in the regional championship and national championship, where the losing team actually appears in news conferences first—as the winning team is presumably busy cutting down the nets.

There could be a number of reasons why the tournament organizers decreed that the losing team should go second in press conferences. For example, they may want to give the losers a chance to collect their feelings and gather their thoughts after heartbreaking losses. They may also want to give the winners ample time to recover and prepare for their next matchup by having them interview earlier. The flip side, of course, is that losing teams, like St. John’s on Friday night, will have to wait their turn to speak to the press when most of the players and coaches involved probably just want to go home as soon as possible.

It’s a very valid complaint from Pitino that may fall on deaf ears. It feels unlikely that the NCAA would make a noteworthy change to their media rules due to one unhappy coach’s critique, but maybe the tournament will look into the gripe further moving forward.

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