There’s a new stigma around college sports that players don’t care as much about wins and losses because they are being paid handsomely in NIL funds but that’s not the case whatsoever with the St. John’s basketball team.
In fact, its crushing loss against No. 16 Iowa State on Monday proved to be the biggest motivating factor to defeating Baylor on Tuesday in emphatic fashion.
“I think what I enjoyed the most last night was the devastation in the eyes of our players,” Rick Pitino said. “A class team really, really focuses in, doesn’t hang their heads, and brings it, and these guys did.”
St. John’s jumped out to a 21-6 lead, led by Bryce Hopkins and Oziyah Sellers, and never looked back. Despite rebounding issues, the Johnnies held Baylor to 37.2-percent shooting from the floor and 32.0-percent from 3-point range.
“When you get guys that are just as crushed as the coaching staff, you got the makeup of a good basketball team,” Rick Pitino continued after the 96-81 victory over the Bears.
“They were so dialed in,” he added when talking about the team during walk through on Tuesday morning. “They’re not a group that asks a lot of questions, during the film they were asking a lot of questions.”
Hopkins explained that the players didn’t want to have the same feeling on Tuesday night as they did on Monday night.
“We had to do something about it,” he explained. “We woke up this morning, had a good walk through, prepared for Baylor, and I feel like we did a great job today at sticking to the game plan for the most part.”
The Red Storm never let up with its offensive attack, shooting 57.4-percent from the field and 50.0-percent (11-for-22) from 3-point range, which were both the best of the early season.
“The walk through was the best walk through we’ve had all season, and I walked away telling the coaches today that it’ll be our night,” Pitino said.
St. John’s will likely get a final high-level game on Wednesday in its finale of the Players Era Festival, but an opponent and start time are unknown yet.