Jay Bilas, ESPN College GameDay criticize Rick Pitino for publicly criticizing St. John's players

St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino went after his own players last week, criticizing them publicly following a loss to Seton Hall.

Pitino called his players “unathletic,” said they “lacked toughness” and called coaching this St. John’s team “the most unenjoyable experience I’ve had” in coaching.

The ESPN College GameDay crew discussed those comments during Saturday’s show.

“He said stuff he should’ve said in the locker room, he said it publicly,” Jay Bilas said. “And look, do I think there’s a little bit of a contradiction for us in the media? We ask our subjects to be forthcoming with us. Then when they’re forthcoming we say we don’t like it.

“But what I would say to people who are critical of this or think it’s OK… ask yourself, how you would feel about it if a player were in that press conference and said, ‘Well, we were up 19 but then Rick started coaching. Our second-half adjustments were terrible. We have bad game plans, and we as players can’t overcome that.’ We would crush them for doing that.”

Fellow College GameDay analyst Seth Greenberg also criticized Rick Pitino. As Greenberg pointed out, it’s Pitino who recruited the players to be a part of the St. John’s program.

“He brought those players in. He was recruiting them. He thought they were good enough to help them rebuild the St. John’s basketball program,” Greenberg said. “He passed on a lot of guys that were on that roster that are having pretty good years.”

Greenberg believes that Pitino’s comments could go on to hurt him in recruiting.

When St. John’s has won in the past, it has recruited the New York area well. However, Greenberg heard from several influential basketball people in New York who weren’t happy with what Pitino had to say.

“The bigger picture is when you recruit the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area, that is a very close-knit community, and that community is together. And this past week, I got more phone calls from the powerbrokers of New York metropolitan basketball, and they were not happy,” Greenberg said.

“When these good prospects are coming to a decision, they’re in there with their grassroots coach, their high school coach, their advisor. … In that room, if you don’t have those guys at least neutral, you have no shot. He lost the confidence and faith of some of the most important decision makers in the New York metropolitan area. He’s going to have to rebuild a bridge or it is going to be really hard to get those guys, and you cannot win at St. John’s unless you recruit the New York metropolitan area.”