Rick Pitino tweaked his starting lineup once.
Then tore it up a second time.
Knowing that St. John’s needed an extra ball handler to pair with Oziyah Sellers against William & Mary’s full-court pressure, Pitino planned to start Lefteris “Lefty” Liotopoulos until he saw how practice turned out.
“When we put in their full-court press, we were turning the ball over constantly,” Pitino said. “The [backups] were destroying the starters, simulating their pressure. I walked upstairs and told the staff, ‘It’s not going to work.’ ”
Enter Dylan Darling, who might be one half of the Red Storm’s new starting backcourt (with Sellers) moving forward after a 93-60 victory Saturday night at Carnesecca Arena.
“He’s got great moxie,” Pitino said. “He’s afraid of nothing. He thinks he’s the best player on the court.”
Will Pitino really start an Idaho State transfer (Darling) over the highly touted transfers from North Carolina (Ian Jackson) and Arizona State (Joson Sanon)?
“I try to play the best players regardless of reputation,” Pitino said. “I told this to Joson and Ian the other day. I brought them both in and said, ‘I’m not going by reputation. You are all new to me. I don’t care what you did in high school. I don’t care what you did at Arizona State or North Carolina. I just care about what you do at practice.’ ”
Pitino said that it is “irrelevant” to him who starts because “they are all going to play.”
Darling didn’t fully return to practice from a calf strain that caused him to miss the last game until Thursday.
He figured out he was starting in Saturday morning’s shootaround.
The change freed up the hot-shooting Sellers to look for his shot.
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“Dylan is a great point guard. He has great vision,” Sellers said. “I feel like whenever I’m playing with him, he finds ways to get me open. I’m used to playing off-ball, so I feel natural.”
Pitino — as if wanting to send a message about keeping your foot on the gas to his newly assembled team — challenged a goaltending call against Dillon Mitchell despite a 78-45 lead.
“I never look at the score,” Pitino said. “I just coach every possession as if it’s my last breath in life. We just try to teach, so when we’re in a close game we remember the way it’s played. I’m not trying to run up the score. The referee actually looked at me and I said, ‘That’s not a goaltend. Do I have to challenge this?’ He said, ‘You have to challenge it”
The call was overturned after replay review.
It’s the first time that St. John’s has scored 90 or more points in the first three games of a season since 1971-72.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
