Rick Pitino is OPEN to NCAA Tournament expansion + how he's dealing with St. John's championship expectations

Eye On College Basketball

CBS Sports, College Basketball, Basketball, March Madness, NCAA Tournament, NBA Draft

Basketball, Sports

4.8 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Rick Pitino sits down with Matt Norlander at Big East Media Days to discuss his St. John's squad and the state of the sport. (0:15) Excitement for this season (1:00) Finding fulfillment in coaching (1:30) Thoughts on last year (3:00) Arkansas loss (4:00) Shooting focus (4:40) Joson Sanon (5:20) Zuby Ejiofor (6:15) Preseason hype (7:15) CBB Big picture (8:45) Possible NCAA Tournament expansion (10:45) How he will define success this year 🎵 Theme song: "Timothy Leary," written, performed and courtesy of Guster Eye on College Basketball is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Follow our team: @EyeonCBBPodcast @GaryParrishCBS @MattNorlander @Kyle_Boone @DavidWCobb @NataTheScribe Visit the ⁠betting arena on CBSSports.com⁠ for all the latest in ⁠sportsbook reviews⁠ and ⁠sportsbook promos⁠ for ⁠betting on college basketball⁠. You can listen to us on your smart speakers! Simply say, "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Eye on College Basketball podcast," or "Hey, Google, play the latest episode of the Eye on College Basketball podcast." Email the show for any reason whatsoever: [email protected] Visit Eye on College Basketball's YouTube channel: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeFb_xyBgOekQPZYC7Ijilw⁠ For more college hoops coverage, visit ⁠https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/⁠ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit ⁠https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/⁠ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:29.3	dot org One, the only Rip Petino joins us here on the Ion College Basketball podcast from Big East Media Day.
0:49.3	All right, preseason pick narrowly to win the league over Yukon, Zubi, preseason league player of the year.
0:57.6	Where do I find you on this morning as we prepare for the season, Rick?
1:01.3	What are your thoughts on your team, what you see so far?
1:03.5	What are you most excited about?
1:05.8	Well, I think we have 10 new players that are trying to learn each other.
1:10.2	Mm-hmm.
1:10.5	And that's probably for all of us in coaching, the most difficult task is schools like Connecticut
1:16.6	with three starters back or Florida with three starters back have a big advantage because they
1:22.1	play together.
1:23.1	They know the coaching staff.
1:24.1	They know the fundamentals.
1:26.0	It's difficult putting 10 new guys in with the other players that are returning.
1:30.5	And once we get it, I think we'll be a pretty good team.
1:33.8	Where do you get the joy and get the feeling of fulfillment and satisfaction in the job, though,
1:39.9	even with having to establish relationships, connections with so many players?
	...

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