By ADAM ZAGORIA
NEW YORK — During the Sweet 16 games at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night, new St. John’s coach Rick Pitino made a recruiting pitch on Twitter in which he mentioned that future players would get “to play all of your home games there.”
St. John’s played four games at the Garden last season under Mike Anderson — and has ranged from four to eight games there. The Garden said it expects to have more games going forward. “We do expect that but we don’t know yet,” Garden executive vice president Joel Fisher said in a one-on-one interview ahead of the NCAA Tournament games. “Rick has clearly said that he wants to play more games here. [St. John’s AD] Mike Cragg, who is a great friend and we’ll work more closely with, said they want to play more games here so we’re going to sit down in the next couple of weeks and look at our schedule because we’re the busiest building in the world but we will do everything in our power to find more dates for St. John’s and I’m sure there will be more games here under Rick. “And it will be great because he’s going to draw fans, the team’s going to be better and it’s just going to be overall a great experience for everyone.” Asked how many games he expected to play at the Garden next season, Pitino said “six or seven.” “The following year I think almost every game will be played in a major arena,” he said As for drawing fans to the Garden he said, “That won’t be a problem. When they see the brand of basketball that we’re going to put on that floor and the players we’re gonna bring in, that will not be a problem.” Follow Adam Zagoria on Twitter Follow ZAGSBLOGHoops on Instagram And Like ZAGS on FacebookNothing like watching college basketball at the mecca, Madison Square Garden. Can you imagine getting to play all of your home games there?!
— Rick Pitino (@RealPitino) March 23, 2023
