Pitino Says St. John's Squad "Passionate about learning and getting better"

 

St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino at Media Day Thursday. Photo by Jason Schott.

St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino, at Media Day inside Carnesecca Arena on Thursday, said it's "exciting" to see how his players have progressed over the summer as they gear up for one of the most anticipated seasons in program history.

Part of that is because St. John's won the Big East Regular Season and Tournament championships last season, and notched their first NCAA Tournament win in 25 years last season.

On Monday, St. John's also earned their highest ranking in school history in the AP Top 25 Preseason poll, when they came in at No. 5.

"We've had a lot of fun from the summer to now, and that's exciting," Pitino said. "Great group of guys to work with, very passionate about learning and getting better. Multiple guys have really taken their games to a whole new level this summer, which is also exciting. We tried to accelerate how the team plays and focus a bit more on team offense and defense and individual development to get ready for the very difficult, early schedule."

On being worried about minute distribution among the players on his deep roster, Pitino said, "I'm never worried about that. I think that takes care of itself by practice. We're just going to play to win every possession. The players who don't take plays off will play the most minutes. That's what you look for from a basketball coach. Who doesn't take plays off?"

Pitino said of their improvement defensively in practice, "We're just trying every single day to get better defensively. That's probably the era that we're in anytime you have ten new players. It's been a lot easier getting them to mesh that I thought it would be because they're such outstanding individuals as people."

Rick Pitino addresses the media Thursday. Photo by Jason Schott.

The reason Pitino is highlighting all the new faces is because St. John's has a seven-member transfer class that was ranked No. 1 in Division I, according to ESPN and 247Sports Transfer Portal Rankings. That's in addition to the four returning players from last year's team, headed by Zuby Ejiofor, who was a First Team All-Big East selection and the reigning Big East Most Improved Player.

Ian Jackson and Dillon Mitchell, who both were top-10 prospects went they left high school, will be the first pair of McDonald's All-Americans to play for the Red Storm since Erick Barkley and Ron Artest, who played together on the 1998-99 team.

Jackson is a Bronx native who played last season for the North Carolina Tar Heels, where the point guard earned a spot on the All-ACC Freshman Team. Last season, he averaged 11.9 points per game, while shooting 45.6 percent overall, and 39.5 percent on three-pointers. He ranked second in the nation among freshman in transition points, behind only Tre Johnson of Texas. Jackson was ranked No. 7 overall in the transfer portal, according to 247Sports.

Pitino said Jackson, "without question, is the most improved basketball player. He's gone from the 10th or 11th man to one of the top three on our team, and I'm really happy for him that he's evolved. He's in the offices after practice with Coach (Steve Masiello) and Coach (Bob Walsh) looking at film and asking 'where can I get better?'"

Jackson said returning to his home city "means a lot. Having the chance to play in front of my family once again, I haven't had that in a few years. I accept the pressure. There's definitely pressure to be in New York, big city, big market, but I accept it. I feel like I've put in enough work to where I can accept the pressure and go out and perform."

Mitchell is a 6-foot-8 forward who played two seasons for Texas before spending one season with Cincinnati. He has started 106 out of a possible 107 games in his college career. Last season with Cincinnati, he averaged 9.9 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 1.4 steals per game. He hot 61.4 percent from the field, partly because he ranked tenth in the country with 66 dunks. He scored in double-digits 22 times, and he led his time, while ranking seventh in the Big Ten, with six double-doubles. 

Mitchell's time in Texas was quite impressive, starting with a freshman year in a 2022-23 season in which they went 29-9 and made the Elite Eight for the first time in 15 years. Mitchell started all 38 games that season, a Texas freshman record, and he led the team in field goal percentage, as he shot 63.6 percent, as he averaged 4.3 points and 3.9 rebounds per games. As a sophomore, he stepped it up to 9.6 points and 7.5 rebounds per game, with the latter number second-best in the Big 12. He also had eight double-doubles, which ranked third in the Big 12, plus 17 double-digit scoring outings.

Pitino said Mitchell "is just a selfless, really good basketball player that has the ability to be great, and we're working on the parts that need to get better, and he certainly is. They're all guys that want to get better. That's impressed me the most."

Oziyah Sellers is a Stanford transfer who averaged 13.7 points per game, while shooting 45.1 percent overall, including 40.1% from three-point range, in his one year at Stanford. He also shot 89.7 percent from the free throw line, which came in at fifth-best in Cardinal history.

The 6-foot-5 guard started in all 35 Stanford games this past season, playing 33.1 minutes per game. 

Sellers ranked second on the team and top-25 in the ACC in scoring, while notching double-digit points 28 times, including six games in which he scored at least 20 points.