St. John’s Red Storm coach Rick Pitino was enraged during a recent interview when asked about the scuffle involving his team and conference rival Providence Friars. On Saturday, Feb. 14, Pitino and his Red Storm squad beat coach Kim English’s Providence Friars 79-69 at the latter’s home arena, the Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence, Rhode Island.
During the post-game press conference, Pitino was asked what exactly happened when his players got into an altercation with English’s players. The said scuffle unfolded at the 14:27 mark of the second half, when Providence forward Duncan Powell fouled St. John’s swingman Bryce Hopkins during his fast-break layup attempt. As Hopkins fell to the ground, he immediately shoved Powell, which ignited a fight between the teams.
“ I think you saw it as well as me. But I didn’t have the film in front of me to look at everybody. But, you know, you can’t let, you’re not supposed to come off the bench, but you can’t let your players get beat up. But we’re not gonna address that. Let the league address it. If you wanna talk basketball, talk basketball…You write what you saw. Don’t ask my players what they ask about the people. Okay, thank you,” Pitino said…