St. John’s basketball: Rick Pitino throws out first pitch at Subway Series

St. John’s basketball head coach Rick Pitino threw out the first pitch of the Subway Series. 

The Subway Series is a New York City event and St. John’s basketball head coach Rick Pitino got the week started.

Pitino threw out the ceremonial first pitch at Citi Field ahead of the first game of the series on Tuesday between the New York Mets and New York Yankees.

However, instead of having a player from the Mets catch the first pitch it was Pitino’s superstar at Louisville, and super Mets fan, Donovan Mitchell who caught the St. John’s head coach’s toss.

Mitchell, a New York native, played two season for Pitino with the Cardinals before he was the No. 13 overall pick of the 2017 NBA Draft by the Utah Jazz.

ALSO READ: St. John’s lands commitment from 4-star guard Simeon Wilcher

The four-time NBA All-Star was traded last offseason from the Jazz to the Cleveland Cavilers where he was eliminated from the postseason by the New York Knicks, a team that was heavily interested in trading for him.

St. John’s basketball head coach complete turnover of roster

Rick Pitino has been hard at work trying to revamp the Red Storm roster since being named as the program’s next head coach in March and he has added 12 new players to the roster, ten from the transfer portal, including a quartet of players from Iona in Daniss Jenkins, Quinn Slazinski, Cruz Davis, and Sadiku Ibine Ayo.

ALSO READ: David Jones commits to Memphis

Nahiem Allyene, Sean Conway, RJ Luis, Jordan Dingle, Glenn Taylor Jr., and Zuby Ejiofor also join the Johnnies from previous schools.

Brady Dunlap, a 4-star wing and former Notre Dame signee, and Simeon Wilcher, a 4-star guard and former North Carolina signee, are the only two high school prospects to commit to St. John’s this offseason as Joel Soriano and Drissa Traore are the only players remaining from last year’s team.