Will he or won’t he?
Rick Pitino has declined to reveal his attire for Saturday’s meeting with Villanova at the Garden.
It’s a “white-out,” which usually means a white suit.
But Pitino is debating whether it is appropriate coming off the ugly 32-point loss at Connecticut.
“I went out to a special tailor for the first time in my life and had a white suit made up [earlier in the year],” the Hall of Fame coach said Friday. “This could be one of my last white suits if I finish coaching this year, which is not true. I said that when I got the suit at the time.”
He paused, and added: “I just wasted a lot of money. In all honesty, I was planning on definitely not wearing it. But I have these eight friends we have coffee with on weekends at this coffee shop and they all went out and bought white suits. So I feel terrible for them. They all did. They’re all wearing white suits.”
Asked if he could change his mind, Pitino joked: “Unless I have a couple wines, [St. John’s radio announcer John Minko] buys me a drink, maybe I’ll change my mind. But the chances of Mink buying me a drink are very slim.”
It does seem like Pitino is warming up to the idea, and hasn’t decided one way or the other yet.
Two of his players, Oziyah Sellers and Dillon Mitchell, are hoping to see Pitino in white.
St. John’s is 2-0 when he wears it.
CHECK OUT THE LATEST BIG EAST STANDINGS AND ST. JOHN’S STATS
“Then, he got to put the white suit on,” Mitchell said.
In the handshake line after the loss to the Huskies, Pitino said Connecticut coach Dan Hurley told him: “I have a feeling we’ll meet again.”
Pitino responded: “I hope you’re right.”
A third matchup would take place in the Big East Tournament title game.
Pitino on his brief postgame comments after the loss to Connecticut: “I was just trying to get out of there. When you go through a loss like that, you say the wrong things in anger.”
St. John’s senior star Zuby Ejiofor was named to the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year late-season team.
He was one of 15 finalists.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
