It has happened before with Rick Pitino: an inconsistent offensive team that struggles to shoot, but defends at an incredibly high level.
Thirteen years ago, offensive limitations didn’t stop Louisville from reaching the Final Four, and it hasn’t stopped 10th-ranked St. John’s from winning 22 of its first 26 games and rising to the top of the Big East.
“Similar in the sense we were going to have to win extremely ugly in a lot of ways like St. John’s does,” Pitino’s son, Richard, an assistant on that Louisville team and currently the New Mexico head coach, told The Post over the phone. “Our defense and rebounding traveled. That’s why we were able to win a lot of games.”
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