St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino shared a humorous anecdote following his attendance of the Knicks’ Game 4 win over the Cavaliers on Sunday afternoon.
According to Pitino, lip readers caught the new Red Storm coach sharing his phone number with someone else at the game and accurately surmised what it was.
Luckily, things didn’t go poorly for Pitino afterward.
Pitino took the St. John’s job after spending the past three seasons at Iona, where he went 64-22 and led the Gaels to two NCAA Tournament appearances.
St. John’s hasn’t reached the field of 64 since 2015, though the Red Storm did lose in the First Four in 2019. While the program has been in a postseason drought, it’s been far from a train wreck. The Red Storm have finished with a winning record in each of the past four seasons, posting a record of 68-56, since that First Four run in 2018-19.
A couple of new recruits could get them over the hump, and Pitino certainly should be thrilled by the response he received by accidentally sharing his phone number with the world.
Per On3, St. John’s has the 162nd-ranked recruiting class for 2023 after ranking 57th a season ago. Pitino’s had a bit more luck in the transfer portal.
Two former Iona recruits — guard Cruz Davis and power forward Quinn Slazinski — followed him to New York. 2023 NCAA Tournament champion Nahiem Alleyne is headed to Queens as well. The UConn guard averaged 7.2 points per game on 40 percent shooting in 19 minutes per game during the tournament.
