St. John On Saturday night, defeated by Creighton to earn the first Big East Tournament school title in 25 years thanks to the Hall of Fame Rick Pitino coach, and he plans to celebrate in a large way.
After overthrowing Blue Jays 82-66 behind the star performance of RJ Luis Jr. And Zuby Ejiofor, Pitino sat down with Fox Sports to talk about what his victory meant.
Chief Coach of the Red Storm St. John, Rick Pitino, after winning the Great East Championship against Creighton Bluejays in Madison Square Garden on March 15, 2025. (Robert Deutsch-Hagn Pictures)
“We just wanted to play every game in Great Eastern tournament As if it were the first round, the second round and the third round [of the NCAA Tournament]”Pinita said.
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“We did that. The pressure became us, but we went through a big way.”
Despite being lagging behind at the end of the first half, St. John gathered in the second half, making 14 straight shots off the field. Luis scored everything except two of his 29 points, after halftime, and Ejiofor added 20 points to earn Big East’s title on Saturday.
“At the beginning of the year, we had our goals, but we were just hoping we would make a tournament – to enter,” he added.
Main coach St. John Rick Pitino gestures after defeating Creighton Bluejays to win the Big East tournament in Madison Square Garden on March 15, 2025. (Pictures Brad Penner-Hagn)
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But before St. John finds out about his fate on Selecting Sunday, The legendary coach revealed Fox Sports his plans to celebrate the historic victory.
“I’ll drink Jameson’s quarter,” he said with a laugh.
Pitino is the first coach in history to arrive at the NCAA tournament with six different teams. The victory sealed the automatic offer of St. John for a great dance for the first time since 2019.
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“A great victory for the city. A great victory for our university. You hear it all the time that it is a New York team, and it’s really one,” Pitino said. “Like New Yorker, I’m very, very proud that St. John’s has arrived at this level.”
The attacker of the red storm of St. John Zuby Ejiofor was greeted by Rick Pitino’s head coach while the game ends up against Creighton BlueJayys at Madison Square Garden on March 15, 2025. (Robert Deutsch-Hagn Pictures)
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
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