Rick Pitino and Chris Beard each revived programs in their first two seasons at St. John’s and Ole Miss, respectively.
So far, Year 3 has been far more challenging for both men.
No. 23 St. John’s and Ole Miss both will try to pull out of slumps Saturday night when the Red Storm host the Rebels in New York.
St. John’s hasn’t played since Nov. 26, when the Red Storm blew an 11-point second-half lead and fell to then-No. 21 Auburn 85-74 in the consolation round of the Players Era tournament in Las Vegas.
Ole Miss suffered its third straight loss Tuesday when the Rebels fell to visiting Miami 75-66 in the ACC/SEC Challenge.
St. John’s (4-3) went 1-2 in Las Vegas. It sandwiched a 96-81 win over Baylor between losses to Auburn and then-No. 15 Iowa State, which edged the Red Storm 83-82 on Nov. 24.
The Red Storm struggled on both sides of the floor against Auburn. St. John’s finished with fewer than 80 points for the first time this season thanks in large part to a second half in which it shot 31.8% from the field (14 of 44) while being outscored 55-35.
Auburn’s prolific second half underlined the defensive issues for the Red Storm, who have given up at least 80 points to all four power-conference foes they’ve faced this season.
That’s a particularly bothersome trend for Pitino, whose teams usually are built around stout defense. Per KenPom.com, St. John’s ranked 57th in the nation in defensive efficiency in Pitino’s first season in 2023-24 before jumping to second last season, when the Red Storm went 31-5 and won the Big East regular-season and tournament titles before winning an NCAA Tournament game for the first time since 2000.
“This is a very average defensive team — they are not locked in like last year,” Pitino said following the loss to Auburn. “This is not a locked-in defensive team because they’re new to each other, and they’re going to get it or they’re going to continue losing.”
Beard also was issuing ultimatums after the struggles continued for Ole Miss (5-3), which went 20-12 in his first season in 2023-24 and made the Sweet 16 last year for the first time since 2001.
The Rebels won their first five games this season, all over non-power-conference foes, by an average of 17.2 points. But Ole Miss rarely led in the second half of its neutral-site losses to Iowa and Utah on Nov. 25-26 before falling into a 19-point hole against Miami.
Beard subbed liberally while searching for a spark throughout the second half Tuesday, when he pulled starters Patton Pinkins, AJ Storr, Ilias Kamardine, James Scott and Malik Dia with 18:26 left and the Rebels down 47-28. Ole Miss went on a 12-5 run before the quintet returned with 13:43 remaining.
But the Rebels trailed by double digits until Corey Chest’s dunk with two seconds left provided the final points of the game.
“We’ve got a team right now where the coach has to fight the fights,” Beard said. “You’ve got somebody out there not playing with effort? On good teams, it’s handled before it ever gets to the coach. This is a player-led team. We’re just not there right now. But I’m not deflecting my role in this, either. We’re obviously not a well-coached team right now, period.”
Bryce Hopkins leads St. John’s in scoring at 16.1 points per game. Zuby Ejiofor averages 15.6 points per game and leads the Red Storm with 6.6 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game.
Kamardine and Storr — the latter of whom began his career at St. John’s in 2022-23 — lead Ole Miss in scoring at 13.8 points per game. Scott leads the Rebels with 6.1 rebounds per game while Kamardine is averaging 4.9 assists per game.
