Rick Pitino Blames Adding So Many Transfers for St. John’s Blowout Loss to Michigan
Rick Pitino’s return to Madison Square Garden as coach of St. John’s was highly anticipated. Unfortunately for the Red Storm and their fans, Michigan spoiled Pitino’s celebrated home debut with a decisive 89–73 victory on Monday night.
The Wolverines’ backcourt of point guard Dug McDaniel and transfer Nimari Burnett combined for 47 points. St. John’s had no answer on defense, which Pitino expressed surprise about after the game.
“What we didn’t expect was to get dominated by their point guard the way he dominated us tonight,” said Pitino, per Fox Sports’ John Fanta.
“Their backcourt dominated our backcourt,” Pitino added. “They played intelligent basketball and we did not. They’re going to have a great season. There’s not too many teams better than Michigan in the Big Ten.”
Pitino rationalized his team looking out of sync by adding so many players through the transfer portal. But several fans pointed out that Pitino is the coach who constructed his roster with the transfer portal.
Joel Soriano led St. John’s (1–1) with 15 points but as Pitino harshly assessed, the center didn’t have much help in the frontcourt. Guards Daniss Jenkins, who followed Pitino from Iona, and Jordan Dingle, a transfer from Penn, each added 10 points.
As some fans pointed out, Pitino was hired by St. John’s in March which didn’t leave him much choice but to piece together his roster through the transfer portal.
The coach brought in some notable players, including Chris Ledlum from Tennessee, Zuby Ejiofor from Kansas, and Simeon Wilcher from North Carolina to assemble what will likely be a formidable team later in the season. Yet for now, as demonstrated against Michigan, those pieces still need to mesh together.
