St John's Basketball

St. John's men's and women's basketball teams will wear patches honoring late Hall of Famer Lou Carnesecca for the remainder of the 2024-25 season, the school announced on Wednesday.

Carnesecca died on Nov. 30 at age 99. He led St. John's men's basketball to 526 wins over 24 seasons between 1965 and 1992.

St. John's vice president of athletics Edward M. Kull shared an image of the commemorative patch on X.

In addition to the patches, special tributes in Carnesecca's memory will be held this weekend during a men's game against Kansas State on Saturday and a women's contest against Wake Forest on Sunday.

St. John's will share a tribute video honoring Carnesecca, followed by a moment of silence ahead of each game. Photos of Carnesecca will be displayed on the video board throughout the game.

The court will also feature a decal celebrating Carnesecca, and players will wear shirts emblazoned with his wins total and signature during shootarounds.

St. John's will dedicate additional tributes in Carnesecca's memory when the men's basketball program takes on Butler on Jan. 4, the day prior to what would have been the late head coach's 100th birthday.

Fans attending this "Lou Carnesecca Day" game will receive miniature versions of the statue of Carnesecca installed in the arena lobby in 2021.

In addition to in-game tributes, St. John's said messages honoring Carnesecca will be displayed on digital billboards on the Long Island Expressway, Whitestone Expressway and New Jersey Turnpike.

Carnesecca was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame after retiring as St. John's head coach in 1992. He led his teams to an overall 526-200 record and remains the winningest head coach in program history.

A 25-year-old man has been arrested and charged with burglary, petit larceny, trespassing and possession of stolen property after allegedly stealing a ceremonial sword and bullhorn from St. John's men's basketball head coach Rick Pitino's office at Carnesecca Arena in New York City, per the Associated Press.

The New York Police Department revealed Saturday that Emanuel Yakubov was arrested on Friday, one day after surveillance footage showed two men walking down an arena hallway with the sword and bullhorn in hand. The second suspect is at-large, police said.

Police said that the alleged crime took place on Tuesday evening after two people entered the athletics department offices "without authorization" and took numerous items before leaving campus on a moped.

According to Joe Marino, Carl Campanile and Matt Troutman of the New York Post, Pitino's office was robbed of $375 of memorabilia and goods.

Pitino confirmed that a bottle of wine was stolen as well.

Pitino has won two national championships during his storied collegiate coaching career. He has also guided teams to seven Final Fours.

Pitino has coached Boston University, Providence, Kentucky, Louisville, Iona and St. John's. He joined the Red Storm in 2023 and led the team to a 20-win campaign.

St. John's University men's basketball head coach Rick Pitino's office at Carnesecca Arena was robbed of $375 of memorabilia and other goods on Tuesday.

New York City Police Department sources relayed that news to Joe Marino, Carl Campanile and Matt Troutman of the New York Post. The goods includes a basketball and a bullhorn.

An upset Pitino confirmed he was robbed and added that a bottle of wine was stolen as well.

Pitino's office is a floor above the basketball court at Carnesecca Arena, where St. John's plays in Jamaica, Queens, New York.

The university's athletics department released a statement on the matter: "The University shared surveillance footage with the NYPD and is assisting in the ongoing investigation."

The 71-year-old Pitino is a two-time NCAA national champion who has also led his teams to seven Final Fours.

His collegiate career includes stops as head coach at Boston University, Providence, Kentucky, Louisville, Iona and St. John's. Pitino also coached the New York Knicks (1987-1989) and Boston Celtics (1997-2001) as well.

St. John's won 20 games in Pitino's first season and declined an NIT bid after an NCAA tournament snub.

Pitino is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Count St. John's head coach Rick Pitino among those who couldn't believe that the Big East only received three bids to the NCAA tournament, with the Red Storm joining Seton Hall and Providence as notable snubs.

"I believe in getting better not bitter. I totally believe that six teams from the Big East belonged in the field," he wrote on social media Monday. "I know our players, along with Providence, are totally disappointed with the decisions made. But not having Seton Hall at 13-7 in Big East play, with wins over the top teams, is flat out wrong!"

Pitino wasn't alone in his disbelief over the lack of Big East teams in the men's tournament outside of UConn, Marquette and Creighton. Bluejays head coach Greg McDermott was also shocked:

"Hard to believe," he said of the conference's snubs. "I certainly recognize that the committee's got a difficult job. And the events of the last couple of days, with upsets in conference tournaments, has almost made it unprecedented. But we're the second best league in the country and we have three teams in the top three seed lines, and a [Seton Hall team that went 13-7 in league play] isn't worthy to get in?"

Pundits on social media also decried the NCAA selection committee's perceived oversight:

Here were the respective résumés for the three snubs:

• St. John's: 20-13 record, 11-9 in Big East play, 4-10 Quad 1 record.
• Seton Hall: 20-12 record, 13-7 in Big East play, 5-8 Quad 1 record.
• Providence: 21-13 record, 10-10 in Big East play, 6-9 Quad 1 record.

This was not a normal year, as chaos at the conference tournaments shrunk the list of available bids for teams on the bubble.

Saturday saw New Mexico go from being a bubble team to earning an automatic tournament berth by winning the Mountain West tournament. UAB won the American Athletic Conference tournament, giving the conference two tourney berths rather than the expected one (Florida Atlantic also got in). And both NC State (ACC) and Oregon (Pac-12) shocked the country by winning their respective conference tournaments, stealing two more bids. Neither team would have been in the field otherwise.

So the Big East schools and other snubs around the country—including Oklahoma, Indiana State and Pittsburgh—watched as the tournament field shriveled in front of them.

In most years, the Big East likely would have sent at least four teams, with Seton Hall among the selection committee's first four left out.

That's little solace for those schools, however. The Big East very well may end the season on top, as UConn looks poised to potentially win a second straight title, but the sting of only seeing three teams make it to the tournament remains.

Rick Pitino and St. Johns will not be involved in the postseason collegiate basketball landscape.

Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic reported that the Red Storm had asked the NIT "not to invite them to the tournament," which comes on the heels of an NCAA Tournament snub.

Pitino discussed the snub immediately after the brackets were released:

St. John's went 20-13 in 2023-24 and lost to UConn in the semi-finals of the Big East tournament. This was Pitino's first season as the program's head coach.

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St. John's last appeared in the NIT in 2014, when it fell to Robert Morris in the first round. The program has appeared in that postseason tournament 30 times in its history, winning it officially five times with a vacated tournament win in 2003.

The Red Storm last appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 2019, when it fell to Arizona State in the first four. The program has not advanced past the second round of the tournament in the 21st century.

St. John's had a net ranking of 32 on Selection Sunday. Per Ben Stevens of SportsGrid, the highest ranked team by that metric to be left out of the NCAA Tournament was 33rd. St. John's and Indiana State, which was ranked 29, both fell short of the tournament this season.

This means that it will be another postseason without a St. John's presence, but the progress on the year is still worth noting. It was the first 20-win season for the program since that 2018-19 season, and the team should remain a contender in the Big East going forward.

Four days after criticizing his team following a loss to Seton Hall, St. John's head coach Rick Pitino issued a public apology to the players on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters after the Red Storm's 90-85 win over Georgetown, Pitino called his players and family "the most important thing in my life" and he "would never want to embarrass them or hurt them."

St. John's blew a 19-point lead in a 68-62 loss against Seton Hall on Sunday. Pitino ripped into not only his players, but the team's facilities after that defeat. He said they "lack toughness" as part of a rant about Chris Ledlum not getting to the free-throw line in 29 minutes.

Pitino described both Sean Conway and Drissa Traore as "slow laterally." Brady Dunlap was called "physically weak," and the roster was "so non-athletic that we cannot guard anyone without fouling."

The Hall-of-Fame coach called this season "the most unenjoyable experience of my lifetime."

St. John's hired Pitino as its head basketball coach in March 2023. He was coming off a three-year run at Iona in which he went 64-22 and led the program to the NCAA tournament twice.

The Red Storm brought Pitino back to the Big East for the first time since 2012-13 when he was at Louisville. They were hoping he would be able to get the program back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since the 2018-19 season.

Pitino is 14-12 with five games remaining in the regular season. St. John's has a lower winning percentage this season than it did in 2022-23 under Mike Anderson (.545).

If the Red Storm want to make it into the 68-team field, they will most likely have to secure an automatic bid by winning the Big East tournament.

After some fiery comments following St. John's eighth loss in 10 games on Sunday, head coach Rick Pitino explained that he wasn't "ripping" anybody with his thoughts.

Speaking with Newsday (h/t ESPN) on Monday, Pitino stood by his comments, explaining that he intended to get a message across to his team after yet another loss.

"I was pointing out exactly—in a monotone voice—why we lost," he said. "I am not always calm and certainly not when I rip someone ... I was not ripping anybody.

"I sometimes want my players to hear my words and read my words. That was my intention [Sunday]."

In his postgame press conference after the loss to Seton Hall on Sunday, Pitino called out his team's athleticism and toughness. The Red Storm blew a 19-point lead, sparking the comments.

"If I said I was disappointed, that would be the understatement of the year," he said Sunday. "Our lateral quickness and our toughness is just something I've never witnessed in all my years of coaching.

"We are so nonathletic that we can't guard anybody without fouling. ... And really it's not about losing. Even winning, when I watch the film, I see unathletic plays, I see people that don't handle the ball, that are just interested in taking quick shots. It's been a disappointing year."

Pitino's first season with St. John's has not gone the way he had hoped. The Red Storm are 14-12 and 6-9 in Big East play, sitting above just 8-17 (1-13 Big East) Georgetown and 3-22 (0-14 Big East) DePaul in the conference.

Pitino wanted to call out his team and spark something with his comments Sunday, and now St. John's will look to respond. The Red Storm will take on Georgetown on Wednesday with the chance to get back in the win column.

The St. John's men's basketball team has lost eight of its last 10 games, falling to 14-12 on the year, and head coach Rick Pitino isn't happy about it, calling it the "most unenjoyable experience of my lifetime."

"If I said I was disappointed, that would be the understatement of the year," he told reporters. "Our lateral quickness and our toughness is just something I've never witnessed in all my years of coaching. We are so nonathletic that we can't guard anybody without fouling."

"And really it's not about losing," he continued. "Even winning, when I watch the film, I see un-athletic plays, I see people that don't handle the ball, that are just interested in taking quick shots. It's been a disappointing year."

Pitino then ripped a number of individual players.

"Joel [Soriano]'s slow laterally, he's not fast on the court," he said. "Chris Ledlum is slow laterally, Sean Conway's slow laterally. Brady [Dunlap's] physically weak, Drissa [Traore] is slow laterally."

The tirade came after St. John's lost 68-62 against Seton Hall on Sunday, blowing a 19-point lead. The Red Storm are now just 6-9 in Big East play and are going to miss out on the NCAA tournament, barring a miraculous run through the conference tournament in March.

Pitino hastily put together a new roster after taking over as head coach last year, adding eight transfers and a pair of freshman recruits. He said he wasn't necessarily surprised that a team rebuilt on the fly was now having its struggles.

"I had no choice," he said. "We just could take who we could get, who was available, we had no choice. I don't think we were going to win the first year anyway, because when you rush like that, you don't see the players. Not a whole lot we can do."

Still, it will be interesting to see how his players respond to being lambasted publicly. Whether it's the effort and toughness of individuals on the court, finding the right lineup balance or the coaching in general, something needs to change for a St. John's team that has made it a habit of late of blowing leads.

"I think the other team makes adjustments and we have to make adjustments to move the basketball and take good shots. But we just lack toughness," Pitino said. "We just don't move our feet on defense. ... It's really all the toughness things are why we give up leads."

It remains to be seen if Pitino will hold himself to the same level of accountability as he publicly did to his players.

It is a turbulent time in college sports with plenty of uncertainty about the future, but St. John's men's basketball coach Rick Pitino offered what he sees as one solution.

Pitino took to social media and suggested there should be a salary cap between $1.5 million and $2 million for the Big East and Power Five conferences when it comes to basketball. He also said the other conferences can establish their own salary cap and admitted things would likely be different for football:

As ESPN's Myron Medcalf noted, Pitino's comments come after the National Labor Relations Board ruled Monday that Dartmouth men's basketball players can be considered employees of the school and can vote to unionize.

A union could pave the way for athletes to have bargaining rights when it comes to salary, working conditions, time allotted and other variables. Conferences creating a sport-specific salary cap like Pitino suggested could, theoretically, be something that is collectively bargained with a union down the line.

Pitino even joked about the Dartmouth ruling:

Yet there are still steps that need to be taken toward unions and collective bargaining becoming a reality in college sports, especially since schools have largely pushed back against that notion.

Dartmouth can appeal Monday's ruling, which is what happened in 2015 when Northwestern football players were granted a similar ruling just for it to be overturned nationally upon appeal. An approach in the Ivy League, where Dartmouth plays, would also likely be different than the ones schools in the power conferences take.

Still, the world of college sports is quite different than it was in 2015 when the Northwestern situation was under the spotlight.

The creation of name, image and likeness rules allow players opportunities to make money. There are also looser transfer restrictions that have created situations where plenty of players in football and basketball switch teams every year.

The SEC and Big Ten also created a joint advisory group to approach changes in college sports, although they were adamant it wasn't a move by the two richest conferences to break away from the NCAA.

Perhaps there will be some type of salary cap down the line, but the future of college sports is still very much up in the air.