Rick Pitino challenges 'mediocre' St. John's after win over Monmouth

The No. 13 St. John's Red Storm didn't necessarily look like a team capable of making a Sweet 16 run when they opened their 2026-27 season versus the Monmouth Hawks on Monday night. Nevertheless, St. John's earned a 78-63 win in front of a Carnesecca Arena crowd that began the evening celebrating the program's second straight Big East regular-season and tournament titles. 

Following his team's victory, legendary head coach Rick Pitino made it known he expects better from his roster in future contests. 

St. John's guilty of mental mistakes in opening game of season

"The first 10 minutes was great – we were ready to play – and then the rest of it was just mediocre," Pitino said about St. John's overall performance, per Roger Rubin of Newsday. "The first 10 minutes of the game was a devastating defensive performance. Then the rest of the game...we were just making a lot of mistakes, not from the physical standpoint, but more mentally than anything else." 

As Larry Fleisher of The Associated Press noted, St. John's features 11 newcomers coming off the program's trip to the Sweet 16 this past spring. While the Red Storm held leads of 18-4 and 45-28 in the opening half of Monday's contest, what often appeared to be an overmatched Monmouth side outscored St. John's 34-33 in the second half. 

St. John's had good, bad spurts in first game

British point guard Quinn Ellis is one of the new faces on Pitino's roster. On Monday night, Ellis contributed eight points, seven assists and five steals. 

Meanwhile, Auburn transfer Keyshawn Hall led the Johnnies with 26 points.

"We started off great, and then it became really sloppy – we’re really inconsistent right now," Ellis acknowledged after the win. "We have good spurts, but then also really bad spurts...where we're not connected [and] we're not helping one another. ...I just think we lose our concentration [and] look at the scorebook too much. We’ve got to [think] about the scoreboard."

November was always going to be a feeling-out process for a program that lost Big East Player of the Year Zuby Ejiofor, Bryce Hopkins and Dillon Mitchell. Ellis and Co. will next look to produce more good spurts than bad when St. John's hosts the Iona Gaels (1-0) at Madison Square Garden this coming Sunday afternoon.