Sports
By Ryan Ottiger, Newswire Intern
A father-son head coaching battle took place between Rick Pitino of St. John’s University’s Red Storm and Richard Pitino of Xavier University Musketeers.
From the tip-off to the final whistle, the energy in the Cintas Center was at an all-time high. The student section was so packed that Xavier students lined up along the walls rooting on the Musketeers.
In the beginning of the game, St John’s jumped out to a nine-point lead roughly halfway through the first half. Following the Red Storm’s strong start, the Musketeers responded with an offensive surge that made the arena erupt. A Malik Messina-Moore four-point play sparked a 38-17 run to close the half, giving Xavier a 49-37 halftime lead.
This was shaping up to be a premier win for the Musketeers, with a sizable lead over an elite St. John’s team. However, the Red Storm slowed down the pace of the game and made Xavier deal with long, isolation-heavy offensive possessions the rest of the second half. In doing so, St. John’s seemed to have benefited from many questionable whistles as the game progressed, causing outrage among Xavier fans.
Richard Pitino is defeated in a shootout by his father, Rick.
St. John’s had eventually completed the comeback, taking a small lead but carrying all of the momentum. Tre Carroll became a ray of hope for the Musketeers, especially late in the game, when he drained a ridiculous step back three over seven-footer Ruben Prey.
Prior to the game, NBA and Big East commentator John Fanta correctly said Xavier’s success would depend on Carroll and Messina-Moore.
“I think this is a game where playing through Tre Carroll and Malik Messina-Moore is pivotal,” Fanta said. “Those two can get buckets in waves and one of Xavier’s biggest strengths in this game is the fact they don’t turn the ball over much and share it really well.”
The duo proved to be the catalysts that gave the Musketeers a chance, with Carroll scoring a season-high 31 points, and Messina-Moore dropping an efficient 18 points.
After a tense final stretch, the Musketeers suffered a painful loss, 88-83.
Even with an unwanted result, the Musketeers had much to take pride in, as St. John’s is one of the top teams in the country, with NBA talents and one of the greatest head coaches in the history of college basketball.
“I feel like this game just shows how capable we are,” Messina-Moore said in response to what he thought was the biggest learning lesson from the game.
Musketeer fans should not take that with a grain of salt. Even despite all of the offseason changes that have partially contributed to a somewhat disappointing season, the Musketeers proved to still be able to compete with some of the top dogs in college basketball.
This win marked the 900th for Rick Pitino, against his son in special fashion. Despite the growing father-son rivalry between the Pitinos, no love appeared to have been lost.
Richard Pitino still praised his dad after the game.
“I think he’s the best coach to ever coach college basketball,” Richard Pitino in the post-game press conference said. He added that he is blessed to have Rick as a father, and how he’s glad to see that coaching keeps him young.
