St. John’s Red Storm head coach Rick Pitino recently revealed that part of his strategy that brought the Red Storm to the top spot in the Big East this season, giving them the chance to break the team’s four-decade drought in a regular season championship.
In one interview following their victory over the UConn Huskies, Rick Pitino revealed one key strategy that made the players of the Red Storm perform excellently this season, particularly in defense. As it turned out, they have been taking inspiration from the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“So every single day, I would show them 10 to 15 clips of the Oklahoma [City] Thunder,” Pitino said. “Why the Thunder? Because they draw four or five charges a game. They don’t give the paint. They don’t give the three.”
https://youtu.be/wFcMtqTkd_k
The Oklahoma City Thunder have been dominating defensively this season, and the stats back it up. They currently hold the NBA’s best defensive rating at 104.5, which is nearly four points better than the second-best team.
The Thunder’s defensive strategy focuses on creating chaos in passing lanes and forcing turnovers, which leads to fast-break opportunities and limits opponents’ scoring chances. Their ability to switch on defense and guard multiple positions makes them a formidable unit. With a combination of individual talent and a cohesive team effort, the Thunder have established themselves as the top defensive team in the NBA this season.
Will Rick Pitino Give The St. John’s Red Storm a Championship?
The St. John’s Red Storm men’s basketball team has not won a regular-season conference championship in the Big East for nearly 40 years. Their last regular-season championship was in 1985. However, under the leadership of Rick Pitino, the team is currently on the verge of clinching their first regular-season conference championship since 1985.
In the same interview, the head coach talked about expectations and the defensive struggles they had early on, which was the motivation behind emulating the OKC Thunder.
“Well you never know what to expect especially with all these new players,” Pitino said. “You got Kadary [Richmnod], we knew you don’t know much about Devon you don’t know much about Aaron Scott you know a lot about Zuby and you don’t know how they’re going to mesh. We had problems early in the year of getting these guys to mesh defensively um and they’ve every single game they’ve gotten better and better and better and tonight was indicative of two great halves offensively and defensively.”
Rick Pitino added: “Look we’re not a great shooting team, but we’re much better than the statistics show.”
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