Rick Pitino will not coach St. John's basketball against Seton Hall due to COVID

The St. John's basketball team will not have its Hall of Famer when it takes the court on Tuesday night (8:30 p.m. ET, FoxSports1) against Seton Hall after the program announced Rick Pitino will miss the game due to COVID.

Associate head coach Steve Masiello will serve as the interim head coach and there is no timetable for Pitino's return.

Pitino was not at St. John's practice on Sunday, according to a source, and tested positive on Tuesday morning following the team's shootaround after symptoms worsened.

Despite being in the MAAC for two seasons, Rick Pitino and Shaheen Holloway's teams, Iona and St. Peter's, only matched up twice with the Gaels winning both.

However, Holloway also battled Masiello when he was the head coach at Manhattan and the Peacocks got the better of the Jaspers the last six times the two battled as head coaches.

Masiello is 162-177 during his career as a head coach and 105-111 in conference games, all at Manhattan.

The Johnnies (12-5, 4-2 Big East) are coming off a heart breaking, and controversial, loss on the road against No. 22 Creighton on Saturday in which it appeared the Bluejays fouled the Red Storm twice in the final 20 seconds but both plays were deemed as clean by the officals.

Seton Hall (12-5, 5-1 Big East) is riding a four game winning streak after defeating Butler inside Hinkle Fieldhouse on Saturday and is trailing No. 1 UConn by the head-to-head tiebreaker for first place in the Big East.

The Red Storm are currently fourth in the league, trailing Creighton and ahead of Villanova, both by the head-to-head tiebreaker.

St. John's will play No. 17 Marquette (12-5, 3-3 Big East) on Saturday afternoon (12:00 p.m. ET, FOX) and have its second matchup with Villanova on Wednesday night (8:30 p.m. ET, FoxSports1), both inside Madison Square Garden.