As St. John's prepares for the NCAA Tournament as a No. 2 seed, Red Storm coach Rick Pitino couldn't resist taking a playful jab at one of the program's biggest conference rivals, the back-to-back defending champion UConn Huskies.
While previewing the Red Storm's draw in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, Pitino implored players and fans to "wave" as they passed the exit for UConn's campus on the drive north to Providence, where St. John's will take on the No. 15 seed Omaha to open the tourney.
"We know [Omaha’s] a high-scoring team," Pitino said. "They shoot a lot of threes. And if we get by them, we obviously have our work cut out for us as well against Arkansas-Kansas winner—I have no idea who's going to win that game. So it's exciting."
"We were hoping for Providence. We were hoping for a two-seed. And we were hoping we'd win the [outright] regular season [Big East title]. We were hoping we'd win the conference championship. So get your Providence tickets. Head up north. When you pass Storrs on the way by, just wave to them."
“When you pass Storrs on the way by, just wave to them”
— New York Post Sports (@nypostsports) March 17, 2025
Rick Pitino previews the NCAA Tournament and takes down UCONN along the way 🤣 pic.twitter.com/VyvLSctiiJ
Storrs is, of course, the location of UConn's main campus. The Huskies have won each of the last two national championships and have reigned supreme in the Big East under coach Dan Hurley.
And ever since Pitino was hired by the Red Storm in March of 2023, he and Hurley have traded subliminal blows off the court just as their teams have exchanged parries on the court.
But this season, the Huskies faltered to a 23-win season after winning 30-plus games in each of the last two seasons. Two of their 10 losses came at the hands of Pitino's Red Storm. And Pitino is clearly enjoying ruling the roost in the Big East.
St. John's and UConn are both situated in the West region of the bracket, so a potential meeting down the road isn't out of the question should both programs make a deep run. And boy did that potential matchup get spicier after Pitino's jab.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Rick Pitino Throws Shade at UConn While Previewing NCAA Tournament for St. John's.
