Rick Pitino Throws Players Under the Bus: St John's "is the most unenjoyable experience of my lifetime"

Rick Pitino has a way with words. He used all of the bad ones to describe his St. John’s basketball team after the Red Storm dropped another game in Big East play.

St. John’s led Seton Hall by 19 points late in the first half. That slowly eroded away as the Pirates outscored the Johnnies 39-21 in the second half en route to a 68-62 Seton Hall victory. St. John’s has now lost eight of their last ten to fall to 14-12, and 6-9 in Big East play. It was the straw that broke Pitino’s back.

“We are so unathletic that we can’t guard anybody without fouling,” he said. “For me, I’ve always enjoyed the first year, and I’m not gonna lie to you: This is the most unenjoyable experience of my lifetime. This has been so disappointing.”

It’s not Pitino’s fault his team isn’t good, it’s his players. Got it.

If you think hard and long about it, didn’t he recruit those players? So isn’t it Pitino’s fault his team stinks? Not according to Pitino.

“We kind of lost this season with the way we recruited. We recruited the antithesis of the way I coach. It’s a good group, they try hard, but they’re just not very tough,” said Pitino.

“You could be at Missouri and recruit slow players. Believe me, it’s not St. John’s. We had to put together a team at the last second. We will never, ever, do that again.”

Wow. Even Missouri is catching strays from steaming Pitino.

If you thought he was finished playing the blame game, think again. It’s also not his fault he can’t recruit better players because he doesn’t have good enough facilities to recruit good players.

“Do we have sh*tty facilities? Yes, we do,” Pitino said. “But we’re doing something about that. But that’s not the reason we’re losing. Having sh*tty facilities has nothing to do with not guarding.”

That last statement might be the most true thing he said all night. As long as the hardwood is intact, the quality of the facility should not impact one’s ability to play defense.

Rick Pitino is in a bad, bad place at the bottom of the Big East and on the outside of the NCAA Tournament bubble. This is his cry for help and it might be his most amusing public appearance of the year.

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