Rick Pitino praises Steve Pikiell and Rutgers ahead of charity exhibition

Rutgers will face St. John’s  in an exhibition game on Saturday, October 21 benefitting the Dick Vitale Pediatric Cancer Research Fund at the V Foundation. Tip-off is at 2:00 p.m. in Jamaica, New York at Carnesecca Arena. It’s a tremendous preseason test for both programs.

On Tuesday, St. John’s held its media day and new head coach Rick Pitino discussed the upcoming matchup.

“We’re very excited to play someone other than ourselves this weekend,” Pitino said. “We get a chance to play against a very well coached Rutgers basketball team. All the funds that are collected go to pediatric cancer. So we are very excited about that to see where we are at this point because we have 14 players now learning a completely new offensive and defensive system with the exception of the three Iona players.  It will be a challenge for us this soon to play a team like Rutgers but we’re also very excited to get on the court and compete against them.”

Steve Pikiell also has a new roster featuring four transfers and two freshman, including heralded recruit Gavin Griffiths. During Big Ten media day, Pikiell emphasized that Rutgers has improved depth for this season.

“I like the fact we can go 11 or 12 players deep this year,” Pikiell said. “We really didn’t have that kind of depth the last couple of years so when we got an injury, it hurt us. The offseason is so important. We have great chemistry. I take my time in the portal. I bring in great kids that fit our culture. We got some of those, and we’re excited about what they can bring.”

As for St. John’s, Pitino also said something similar when asked what the strenghth of his team is. “I think we are a very deep team, that’s what I’m confident in,” Pitino said.

He also touched on how he would approach the exhibition game against the Scarlet Knights.

“Against Rutgers, we’ll play ten people. And will probably sub by units,” Pitino said. “Try to make the units balanced with as far as experience playing with young players.

Pitino did say they’ll be without guards Cruz Davis and RJ Luiz on Saturday as both have broken hands.

Rutgers-St. John’s is a compelling matchup based on being former Big East foes, two local teams and in this instance, Pitino’s first bench appearance as head coach for the Johnnies. However on the court, it will be fascinating to see each team attempting to play a similar style. Rutgers has made it clear they want to play faster this season with guards Noah Fernandes and Derek Simpson dictating pace. Pikiell spoke about the adjustments needed in doing so at the program’s media day earlier this month.

“This group is just more athletic and faster than we had in the past. The biggest thing a fast-paced game affects is the quicker you should the ball, the quicker you are on defense,” Pikiell explained. “I think last year we were the fourth-best defensive team in the country and the game gets slowed down when you play 19-20 seconds into the shot clock.”

Pitino wants his team to play fast as well but pointed out an issue that his team is having in doing so.

“We’ve had a major problem with turnovers because we are playing so fast by design,” Pitino explained. “We’re trying to play like a ping pong game and when you play that fast, it’s very difficult to keep your turnovers down.”

Whether Rutgers can take advantage of turnovers defensively while also limiting their own in playing faster will certainly be something to watch for in this exhibition game.

As for how good Pitino thinks St. John’s will be, he pointed to playing Rutgers as a true indicator while also complementing the program.

“I’ll know more Saturday. I think Saturday is going tell me more because I’ve had two people, Bill Raftery being one of them, saying they were very impressed with Rutgers,” Pitino said. “I think Rutgers feels they’re every bit as good as last year, if not better. They are a really well coached team. Coach Pikiell does an outstanding job fundamentally in every phase of the game. So for us being a young team playing against Rutgers this early in the season that will tell me where we are at and that will judge how good we are, Saturday will tell us a lot of things.”

There is obviously a lot of hype for this St. John’s team with Pitino in charge. They’re included in multiple national power rankings to start the season and received 47 votes in the preseason AP poll, leaving them just outside the top 25. On the other hand, Rutgers was picked to finish 10th in the Big Ten this season. It’s a spot Pikiell loves to be in and to be able to play the underdog role. All-Big Ten center Cliff Omoruyi said the same during Big Ten media day.

“We always like being the underdogs,” Omoruyi said. “We just got some new guys that are underdogs. It is just bringing the challenge.  We know they are going to be wrong when the season ends.

As for analytics, Rutgers is No. 59 and St. John’s is No. 60 per KenPom. Accounting for newcomers and player development is minimal when it comes to preseason analytics, so it’s fair to expect both teams to be better than that.

As for whether St. John’s is as good as the media says they are, Pitino went back to the importance of Saturday’s exhibition against Rutgers.

“We’ll know Saturday if those votes are warranted or not,” Pitino reiterated. “If we play Rutgers and its a great game and we play great defense and we do things fundamentally sound, then possibly they could be correct. We won’t know until Saturday.”

Rutgers will certainly know more about where they stand after Saturday as well. It’s great timing with this exhibition taking place a little more than two weeks before the season opener against Princeton on November 6.

You can purchase tickets for the Rutgers- St. John’s charity exhibition at Carnesecca Arena  on Saturday, October 21 here. Tickets are $20 for lower-level seating and $10 for upper-level seating. Admission is first-come, first-serve in the respective levels. The exhibition game will not be streamed or televised. We’ll have a full preview of this matchup later this week.