Rick Pitino erupts after recent loss to St. John's: 'This is the most unpleasant experience of my life'

Rick Pitino's first season at St. John's isn't over yet, but he appears to be completely out of his depth. (Wendell Cruz/USA Today)

Rick Pitino is not happy in St. John's.

The longtime basketball coach hit out at his Red Storm team and the St. John's athletic department on Sunday after they lost to Seton Hall 68-62 at UBS Arena. The Red Storm blew an early 19-point lead and shot just under 34% from the field as a team while committing 15 turnovers. It was the third defeat in a row and the eighth in the last ten games.

Even though the season — Pitino's first with the program — isn't even over yet, he sounds exhausted.

“This is the most unpleasant experience of my life,” he said, via NJ.com. “That was so disappointing.”

Pitino has coached throughout the college basketball world for decades and has seen many bad teams in his career. He was hired at St. John's before the season after a successful three-year stint at Iona, which marked his first job in the sport following his tumultuous departure from Louisville in 2017.

But Pitino seemed to take shots at everyone he could on Sunday, including the university's athletic department.

“Do we have crappy facilities? Yes, we do,” Pitino said. “But we are doing something about it. But that's not why we lose. Having shitty facilities has nothing to do with security.”

Pitino also called out his players directly, some by name, saying they were “so unsportsmanlike that we can't guard anyone without fouling.”

“Joel [Soriano]“He’s slow laterally, he’s not fast on the court,” Pitino said. “Chris Ledlum is slow laterally, Sean Conway is slow laterally. Brady [Dunlap’s] physically weak, Drissa [Traore] is laterally slow.”

The 71-year-old coach also blamed his staff's “lost” recruiting efforts for their problems. After taking the job, he added 12 new players to St. John's, although he obviously believes he was targeting the wrong type of player.

“We kind of lost this season because of the way we recruited,” he said. “We recruited the antithesis of the way I train. It's a good group, they try hard, but they're just not very tough… That's not the job. They could be in Missouri recruiting slow players. Believe me, it's not St. John's.

“We had to put a team together at the last second. We will never do that again.”

St. John's has five regular-season games left to play before the Big East Tournament, starting with a matchup against Georgetown on Wednesday. The Red Storm hold a record of 14-12 and are in ninth place in the Big East, ahead of only Georgetown and DePaul. These two teams have only won a single conference game this season.

“I was disappointed all year,” he said. “I am certain [Georgetown coach] Ed Cooley is disappointed. I'm sure the DePaul coach is disappointed. If you lose, everyone is disappointed.”

Pitino actually defended his comments on Monday as well.

Pitino insisted that he wasn't “really kidding anyone” with his comments and that he “agrees with what I said.”

“I explained in a monotone voice exactly why we lost,” he told Newsday. “I'm not always calm and especially not when I'm messing with someone… I haven't fooled anyone.”

“Sometimes I want my players to hear and read my words. That was my intention.” [Sunday].”

Either way, it sounds like March – especially the end of it – can't come soon enough for Pitino.