Expect St. John’s to soar to new heights in Rick Pitino Year 2

Look, it’s entirely possible that this is just a statistical quirk that may have no bases in modern times. College basketball is an entirely different entity than it was even three years ago, let alone 30. 

Still, it’s happened a lot. 

Too often to just write off as an anomaly. 

So here goes: 

When Rick Pitino begins his second year as the head coach at St. John’s Nov. 4 when Fordham visits Carnesecca Arena, there will be any number of reasons to feel good about the Johnnies taking a step forward — primarily a roster that, on paper, seems more in tune with Pitino’s methodology. 

They offered a hopeful glimpse by beating Rutgers in an exhibition, since Rutgers is a Top 25 team that, by season’s end, might well be taking aim at the top 15. 

Those are the actual reasons to have hope. 

Here is another: 

At every one of Pitino’s previous five college stops, the team took gigantic steps forward in Year 2. Every single time, BU to Providence, Kentucky to Louisville to Iona. And in almost every case, Year 2 set the tone for what would be the entirety of the Pitino tenures there. 

You can look it up: 

Boston University 

Year 1, 1978-78: 17-9 

Year 2, 1979-80: 21-9, which included a regular-season championship in the old ECAC North. It was the Terrier’s first 20-win season in 19 years and just the second going back to the program’s founding in 1915. They also played in their first NIT, which was still a legit consolation prize at the time, losing to BC at BC. 

Providence 

Year 1, 1985-86: 17-14 

Year 2, 1976-87: 25-9, which earned the Friars their first NCAA Tournament in nine years (just two years after they lost 20 games). And they made the most of it, too, winning four straight games including an 88-73 thrashing of Georgetown in the Southeast Regional finals at Louisville’s Freedom Hall. 

Kentucky 

Year 1, 1989-90: 14-14 

Year 2, 1990-91: 22-6, which included wins over Kansas, Notre Dame and Louisville, then a 14-4 record in the Southeastern Conference, which earned the Wildcats the SEC regular-season title. They were ineligible for the NCAA Tournament because of two-year probation Pitino inherited but finished ninth in the last AP poll. 

Louisville 

Year 1, 2001-02: 19-13 

Year 2, 2002-03: 25-7, which included the Conference USA Tournament championship and a trip to the NCAAs as a No. 4 seed, where the Cardinals beat Austin Peay before becoming the second of Butler’s five upset victims that year on the way to the finals. An 81-63 stomping of Kentucky early in the year set the tone. 

Iona 

Year 1, 2020-21: 12-6 

Year 2, 2021-22: 25-8, and though this one tests the model slightly because in the COVID-affected ’20–21 season — the Gaels actually stormed through the MAAC playoffs to earn an NCAA bid in Year 1 — by the second season they had evolved into the class of the conference and were 17-3 in the league before losing a one-point heartbreaker to Rider at Boardwalk Hall. 

St. John’s 

Year 1, 2023-24: 20-13 

Year 2, 2023-24: ? 

Again, it’s a different roadmap now, and where once some of Pitino’s inherent skills were program-building and instilling a culture that lasted as one recruiting class joined another, now it’s become a sport of roster assembling, one recruiting class replacing another. There are no givens anywhere. 

But this is a good road map. This is a helpful model. It also makes sense. At all the places he had been before (except Iona, which had been terrific for years until Tim Cluess was forced unexpectedly to leave the program), most of what needed to be done in Year 1 was a complete reversal of a negative tide. 

And by Year 2, he could get to work at his own tide. 

Such is the case here. Mike Anderson left a mess (though not enough of one that he deserved to be bilked out of the money owed him, a continuing disgrace on St. John’s part), and Pitino cleaned it up in Year 1. Going by the past, that’s what he does on whatever campus he hangs his shingle.

Vac’s whacks

Maybe it’s me, but I’m starting to get the idea the Jets’ problems ran a little bit deeper than Robert Saleh.

We lost him six years ago, but Rusty Staub is still doing good work. This week his foundation held its 39th gala to raise money for New York’s first responders. The foundation has helped more than 500 families and distributed more than $5.8 million this year alone. John Franco was one of the co-chairs of the dinner. 

I get it: If you’re a Yankees fan, you’d rather stick a pencil in your eye than be reminded of 2004. Still, if your rooting interests lie anywhere else, Netflix’s three-part series “The Comeback” is some damn fine documentary work. 

It’s amazing that less than one month ago the Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso, Lindor (again), Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Stanton (again, and again) and Juan Soto home runs hadn’t happened yet. Talk about history in a hurry.

Whack back at Vac

Joe Gregorio: Mike, when is the NFL going to outlaw, as I think they should, the so-called Tush Push? It seems eminently unfair to me. 

Vac: I’m open to be told how this is wrong, but I look at it the way I look at the forward pass back at the start: It’s on the defense to figure a way to stop (or at least minimize) it. 

John Twomey: Mike, I looked forward to this Knicks opener. Never made it to halftime. Turned the TV off and went back to the new Michael Connelly book. 

Vac: That is what they call an “excellent life choice.” 

@harrelson69: My father was a diehard Yankee fan. I’m sure he’s smiling down from heaven and going to watch it from there. 

@MikeVacc: He’ll be sitting in the next section over from my dad. 

Sal L. Lamander: Here’s a bit of sports trivia I haven’t seen elsewhere: Randy Johnson has a 7-9 record lifetime in the postseason — 5-0 vs. the Yankees, 2-9 vs. everyone else. As a Yankees fan who’s still not over 2001, thanks a lot, Randy. 

Vac: And you thought the 5.00 ERA he had as a Yankee in 2006 was enough of a gift …