“I told them, ‘you’re one-and-done, you lose this game, the season’s over,’” Pitino said. “That’s the way you gotta play to prepare for March Madness. You don’t just show up in March and say, ‘OK, this is what we are going to do.’ You prepare for it now, you prepare for it at the Big East Tournament. They did a fabulous job, just a tough-ass team. Toughness like you can’t believe.”
In typical St. John’s fashion, the players were critical of their miscues and looking ahead to the next challenge.
They were happy, but not satisfied, a hallmark of this team.
Ejiofor and Luis felt the Red Storm struggled in containing Marquette off the dribble, a point of emphasis entering the game.
“We’re going to go back, we’re going to fix those little mistakes,” Luis said, “and we’re going to get ready for the Big East Tournament, because we want to win that, too.”