The St. John’s basketball team is on the cusp of doing something that hasn’t been done since Chris Mullin was a player in Queens – win the Big East regular season title.
Two more victories and the No. 7 Johnnies (24-4, 15-2 Big East) get to sit atop the league’s standings for the first time since the 1984-85 season and Mullin has been paying attention to the Red Storm from afar.
During an interview with Sirius XM at NBA All-Star Weekend, Mullin referred to Rick Pitino as the Pat Riley of college basketball and mentioned the progression he has seen in Kadary Richmond throughout the season.
The comments were surprising because Mullin has rarely, if ever, mentioned anything about St. John’s since his resignation as the program’s head coach in 2019 after leading the school to the NCAA Tournament, which it has not been back to since until its eventual bid this March.
Pitino is hoping that Mullin can be welcomed back in the good graces of the basketball program in some capacity soon.
“I’m not what St. John’s is about, Chris Mullin is what St. John’s is about,” the current St. John’s head coach said last week after his team defeated DePaul by 24 points.
“He’s the most famous player in the history of the school. He’s someone that everybody looks up to for what he’s accomplished, so he is St. John’s.”
The only time Mullin has been back on campus since his departure was in December at Lou Carnesecca’s funeral and he didn’t get into any specifics about the school or basketball program when speaking to the media, only the lasting impact Carnesecca had on the university.
“Chris epitomizes everything that’s great about St. John’s…it just takes a little time to heal some wounds, but as far as I’m concerned my admiration is as high as it can be for Chris, he’s part of our family and he’s the greatest player in St. John’s history,” Pitino continued.
“We love him and certainly we want him back at any time, speak to the team. He made St. John’s something special back in the 80’s.”
Mullin achieved nearly every accolade possible for a St. John’s player, scoring the most points ever in a Red Storm career, winning the Big East Player of the Year three times, and being the National Player of the Year in 1985.
His No. 20 – not officially retired by St. John’s – is honored by the program.
“This is their home,” Pitino said about all the former Red Storm players. “We want them all back, we want them part of the program. I hope we do some great things because they made it happen, and we hope we can get it back to that level someday.”
That ‘someday’ is here because St. John’s can clinch a share of the Big East regular season title, something that hasn’t been done since 1992, with a victory over Butler on Wednesday night (9:00 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network) and the outright championship on Saturday (2:15 p.m. ET, CBS) against Seton Hall.
It’s a team that not only Chris Mullin, but Lou Carnesecca would be proud of and a banner commemorating the 2024-25 team could soon be hanging in the rafters of Carnesecca Arena next to the legendary ’84-85 squad.