Pitino’s Costly Call & St. John’s Brutal “What If” Debate

Evan & Tiki

Audacy

Sports

4.2 • 988 Ratings

🗓️ 30 March 2026

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

St. John’s comes up short against Duke, but the conversation quickly turns to the decision everyone is questioning: why take out a player who was clearly having the game of his life? The focus is on Rick Pitino’s rotation choice and whether sticking to a preset plan instead of riding the hot hand ultimately changed the outcome. Evan and Tiki debate coaching philosophy in high pressure moments, explore whether this was a simple oversight or a calculated risk, and dig into the emotional aftermath for fans. They also zoom out to what this loss means for the program, including how to define success and the reality that opportunities in March do not always come around again.

Transcript

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0:00.0	As I'm watching this game, I think most of us had the same thought with about, I guess it was about nine minutes to go.
0:06.9	And that is, why is Rick Petino taking out Bizarro Brooke Lopez?
0:12.7	Also known as Ruben Prey.
0:14.8	And I mean, all I can think about was Brooke Lopez as I was watching him.
0:18.9	Well, Robin Lopez, I guess.
0:20.3	Definitely Robin. I was thinking of Brooke because I see watching him. Or Robin Lopez, I guess. Definitely Robin.
0:21.1	I was thinking of Brooke because I see the face.
0:23.5	And Brooks had hair changes over the years.
0:25.7	But this kid Ruben Prey was unbelievable.
0:28.7	He's blocking shots.
0:30.2	He's making threes.
0:31.8	He's the X factor.
0:33.7	And Rick Petino, who has forgotten more basketball than I will ever know, takes him out of the game.
0:39.2	And I'm thinking of myself as I'm glued to this, he'll come back in, you know, give a blow.
0:43.7	Rubin needs a break, right?
0:45.9	We never see him again.
0:48.2	And if that's not bad enough, I'm a big let me watch the postgame press conference guy.
0:53.9	I watch Aaron Boone every day.
0:55.3	Good to see him back.
0:56.5	I watch Carlos Mendoza every day.
0:59.1	Good to see him back.
1:00.4	And so I watched Rick Petino.
	...

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