Pitino & 5 Players Honored By MBWA

 

Zuby Ejiofor lays one in during St. John's win over Creighton on February 16. Photo by Jason Schott.

The Metropolitan Basketball Writers' Association honored the most successful team in the New York region, the Big East Champion St. John's Red Storm, when they announced their awards on Wednesday morning.

Head Coach Rick Pitino was honored with "The Looie" as the Men's Division I Coach of the Year. This award was just renamed in the past year to honor the legendary St. John's Head Coach Lou Carnesecca, who passed away this past November.

This is just the latest accolade for Pitino, who was honored as the Werner Ladder Naismith National Coach of the Year award and the Associated Press National Coach of the Year, along with co-recipient Auburn Head Coach Bruce Pearl, during the Final Four. Pitino was also named the U.S. Basketball Writers' Association (USBWA) Henry Iba National Coach of the Year winner on Thursday, March 20, as the NCAA Tournament commenced. Pitino was honored as the Big East Coach of the Year after he led the Red Storm to a Big East Regular Season Championship, the only St. John's Coach besides Carnesecca to do so. It was St. John's first outright Big East regular season crown since 1985.

The MBWA also placed three St. John's players on the All-Met First Team - Zuby Ejiofor, RJ Luis Jr., and Kadary Richmond. 

St. John's is the only school to ever receive three All-Met First Team selections in the same year. This is the sixth time this has happened, and the other times were in 1983, 1985, 1986, 1999, and 2000 season, when Erick Barkley, Lavor Postell, and Bootsy Thornton received the honor.

Aaron Scott and Deivon Smith received All-Met Honorable Mention.

Pitino and the players will receive these honors at the 92nd annual MBWA All-Met Haggerty Awards Dinner on Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. at the Sleepy Hollow Hotel in Tarrytown, New York. A live stream will appear here.