Rick Pitino told a former player he'd chop him up into seven pieces and send him home... out of love

Rick Pitino has had a hell of a week, to put it lightly. It started with him saying his time at St. John’s has been “the most unenjoyable experience of my lifetime” and “so disappointing” with the Red Storm off to a 14-12 start.

He added that his team is “so unathletic that we can’t guard anybody without fouling” and that “we kind of lost this season with the way we recruited.”

Wait, what? Just laying it all out on the line by saying the players stink and there’s nothing he can do about it? Yeah, pretty much.

“We recruited the antithesis of the way I coach. It’s a good group, they try hard, but they’re just not very tough. 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.”

Ouch. Even Missouri is catching random strays now.

Quinn Slazinski played two seasons at Louisville before transferring to Iona to play two years for Pitino. Then when Pitino left for St. John’s, he hit the portal again to close out his career at West Virginia. When asked about his former coach’s comments this week, the 6-8 forward chuckled before reminiscing on his days at Iona. He stood up for Pitino while making it clear that comments like that aren’t surprising in the slightest.

If anything, they’re pretty tame compared to some of the other things he heard being with him for two seasons.

“That was one of the nicest I’ve ever seen him, quite frankly. I loved playing for him — the one thing about him is he knows who he is. You can’t bat a guy down for that, he hates losing,” he said. “I’ve heard him say some of the craziest things I’ve ever heard come out of someone’s mouth. You just have to understand why he’s doing it. It’s so unfortunate when you’re in that locker room, but hearing it from the outside is kind of funny.”

Any examples he would like to share with the class? Oh, only Pitino unleashing his inner Jeffrey Dahmer — minus the cannibalism. That’s all.

“I don’t want to get in trouble, but he told me — I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this. It was kind of out of love. I didn’t box out and this was in practice. And he looks at me — I don’t know if I can say this,” Slazinski said. “Out of love, he said he will chop me up in seven pieces and send me back to Detroit, or Houston or wherever the bleep I’m from.”

Out of love is one hell of a caveat.

“You can only sit there and laugh,” he added. “He’s like, ‘Are you laughing at me?’ I’m like, ‘No, I promise.’ He knows it’s a game, it’s just who he is. That’s kind of the way he talks. He doesn’t mean it, he just likes to win.”

Ah, what coaches do to win basketball games.

Quinn Slazinski was asked if he was surprised by Rick Pitino's media comments over the weekend

The former Iona forward was hesitant to tell a Pitino story but eventually did pic.twitter.com/LoP3baaxcP

— Ethan Bock (@ethanbock_) February 21, 2024

Never change, Rick. Or do. Actually, yeah, please do.