There was a celebration on the Madison Sq. Backyard ground when the clock hit triple zeroes and St. John’s had escaped with a victory Saturday afternoon.
Contained in the Johnnies locker room, although, Rick Pitino took the glass half-empty method.
“They assume I’m going to leap up and down, say, ‘What an awesome win.’ It’s simply the other,” he mentioned after Kadary Richmond’s jumper with three seconds left despatched Fifteenth-ranked St. John’s to a heart-stopping 68-66 win over Windfall. “You lose video games if you don’t take note of your job, they usually didn’t take note of their jobs. We’re very lucky and very happy we gained, however very disillusioned with the best way we performed down the stretch — not offensively, however defensively.”
Pitino spent most of his postgame information convention important of the efficiency. The Purple Storm (19-3, 10-1) held a 19-point lead with 8:32 left and coughed it up. Their fourth-ranked protection fell aside, undone by Windfall’s unbelievable 3-point capturing. The Friars hit six 3-point photographs over the ultimate 6:28, and had been 12-for-28 from distance for the sport.
Even after Richmond’s shot, Pitino didn’t like the ultimate possession defensively. Had Windfall swung the ball, it may’ve had an open shot, reasonably than Bensley Joseph’s half-court prayer that didn’t come shut.
“I don’t imply to be overly disillusioned. It’s simply little issues that irk the hell out of me,” he mentioned. “Just like the final play, not choosing up a man working down the left sideline after we make a bucket, not working the correct spacing on an offensive play, defensively [not backing] up beneath the professional 3-point line. These issues you may management. You possibly can’t management a missed free throw, you may’t management a missed shot. However you may management these issues, and we didn’t management that, and that’s the disappointing factor for me.”
Pitino felt his gamers began worrying an excessive amount of about missed photographs and free throws, and it carried over to lackadaisical protection.
They gave a high quality 3-point capturing staff open seems, and almost paid for it with a loss.
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It was out of character for this group. The Johnnies have ceaselessly gained this season with protection, even on days after they shot worse than they did on Saturday.
However, as they’ve all yr, the Purple Storm discovered a technique to win.
“It’s at all times higher to study from successful than study from dropping. So we discovered a priceless lesson,” Pitino mentioned. “This helps you. If I’m going in there and smile, be glad, we’re going to take an ‘L’ someplace as a result of we didn’t do our job listening defensively. If you don’t do your job defensively, you lose. We’ve got to scrub that up and we’ll study our lesson with a win.”