Rick Pitino knows how to get his team motivated, and he went in his toolbox to not only spur the St. John’s basketball team to victory against Seton Hall but set up its future success.
After the Red Storm trailed by six points at halftime against the Pirates on Tuesday night, Pitino told his team in the locker room to treat the second half like an NCAA Tournament game – win or go home and its season was on the line.
The Johnnies didn’t respond like he initially would have hoped, watching Seton Hall start the second half on a 9-0 run and building a 15-point lead, its largest of the game. However, St. John’s found its groove defensively and started to chip away.
“You get in the NCAA Tournament, and you may not have it like we don’t have it tonight,” Pitino explained of his message. “So, you’re going to go home, or you’re going to win the game.”
St. John’s outscored Seton Hall 33-13 in the final 15:39 to win 65-60. It was its biggest comeback victory of the season and showed a grit and toughness that had been absent all season long.
“You’re down 15 [points], you’re going to go home, NCAA Tournament, say goodbye to everybody and never see each other again, or you’re going to move on.”
It’s a message that Rick Pitino used with last year’s team at the end of the season when it already clinched the Big East regular season championship to keep the players motivated. It worked and led to a buzzer beating win in the regular season finale on the road against Marquette.
“You’re going to face certain nights that are not your night, and you have to find a way to dig in and find a way to win,” Pitino added. “I tried to show them that there’s going to be a night where you have to give the other team credit and you got to do something about it to get a victory.”
“You got to be the better rebounding team, better defensive team because it’s not your night.”
St. John’s (14-5, 7-1 Big East) will try and keep that momentum going into its next matchup, a road game on Saturday afternoon (1:30 p.m. ET, truTV) against Xavier (11-8, 3-5 Big East), to push its season-high winning streak to six games.