The college basketball community was eager to see how St. John’s would react following their unprecedented 32-point defeat against UConn last week.
However, there was at least one person who had little doubt about the Red Storm’s ability to strike back with force: Villanova’s head coach, Kevin Willard.
Willard’s confidence stemmed from his decade-long experience as an assistant under Rick Pitino, giving him firsthand knowledge of the rigorous practices that follow a tough loss.
“I’m not exaggerating: I lost my hair because of him,” Willard joked on Saturday night after No. 15 St. John’s triumphed over his Wildcats, 89-57, at Madison Square Garden.
“I had a full head of hair when I started working for him. It’s the most grueling experience you can go through.”
The Red Storm’s decisive victory over Villanova occurred just three days after their 72-40 defeat to UConn in Hartford, a match where St. John’s failed to make any of their last 24 shots.
It was the Johnnies’ most lopsided loss ever against UConn.
Perhaps poetically, St. John’s responded by beating Villanova by 32. That was the Red Storm’s largest margin of victory ever against the Wildcats.
Willard began his postgame press conference by saying he anticipated “a tough game” and that he could imagine what Pitino’s preceding practices were like.
Asked to expound, Willard spared no detail.
“You fear for your life every day,” said Willard, who worked for Pitino with the Boston Celtics from 1997-2001 and at Louisville from 2001-07.
“Everyone laughs when I say that, but no. You think you’re going to get fired. It’s miserable. As he’s gotten older, he’s probably become more of a cranky old b—h than he was when I worked for him.”
Continued Willard: “He’s that intense. He always has been. He’s got the most energy of any coach I’ve ever been around. I think that’s why he’s got 900 wins, and national championships, because he does it better — and more intense — than anybody.”
After his postgame quotes went viral, Willard expressed his appreciation for his former boss, writing Sunday on social media that he is “forever grateful” Pitino gave him his first coaching opportunity.
“It is impossible to calculate how much I learned in every aspect of the game in my 10 years working for him,” Willard, 50, wrote. “As a great competitor, he was often at his best after a loss. His energy and passion in those moments are part of what makes him a Hall of Fame coach. Coach is absolutely the best at what he does.”
Willard had also marveled on Saturday night that Pitino, 73, found a player who matches his intensity in senior forward/center Zuby Ejiofor.
Ejiofor recorded his first-ever triple-double in Saturday’s win, totaling 16 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.
For his part, Ejiofor said Pitino was no different in practice after the UConn loss than he normally is.
“He was the same person that he’s always been. We move on. We understand that we didn’t bring it, especially effort-wise, on both sides of the ball,” Ejiofor said.
“We came into practice the next day, competed at a high level. That’s just a game that you learn from. You learn from it and move on. The response is a lot more important. That’s what he was saying, and that’s what I was saying as well.”
Pitino said he didn’t watch the game tape from Wednesday’s loss — the first time he’s done that in his three years at St. John’s.
But the battle-tested Pitino leaned on his past experiences to motivate his players.
“You want to see how a team responds from a terrible game,” Pitino said. “I told them every story in the world, from losing at Louisville by 32 to Notre Dame; losing [to] Providence by 31, and going to the Elite Eight, Final Four. … I said, ‘Guys, it happens.’ We’re not gonna watch any tape on it. We’re gonna focus on a great team: Villanova.”
With the victory, St. John’s (16-2 in conference play) kept pace with No. 6 UConn (17-2) in the Big East standings with a week remaining in the regular season.
If both teams win out — as they’ll be favored to do — they will share the conference’s regular season title.
St. Johns is set to face Georgetown at the Garden on Tuesday night, then visit Seton Hall on Friday night. UConn has only one game remaining: a road bout with Marquette on Saturday afternoon.
