What St. John’s coach Rick Pitino had to say about Alabama basketball after top 25 upset

Coach Nate Oats’ Alabama Crimson Tide sent an early warning shot to the rest of college basketball Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Behind 25 points from sophomore Labaron Philon and 21 points from Aden Holloway, No. 15 Alabama pulled a 103-96 upset of No. 5 St. John’s.

The Crimson Tide (2-0) got off to a good start and led, 53-44, at halftime. St. John’s (1-1) stormed back in the second half and led 84-82 after clutch 3-pointers from Joson Sanon and Ruben Prey, but Alabama never trailed by more than that.

Florida State transfer Taylor Bol Bowen gave the Crimson Tide the lead for good on a 3-pointer with 5:44 to play, and the Tide closed out an impressive road win against a top five team with a 17-9 run.

A 3-pointer from Philon with two minutes to play grew Alabama’s lead to 10 at 98-88, part of seven straight points scored by the phenom who elected to withdraw from the NBA Draft to return to college.

Philon finished 10-of-17 from the field with two 3-pointers, and Holloway was 9-of-18 in his 21-point performance. Alabama had four players finish in double figures, with Bol Bowen adding 17 points and nine rebounds. Latrell Wrightsell also contributed 17 points in 22 minutes off the bench, and freshman Amari Allen had 10 rebounds.

After Saturday’s game, St. John’s coach Rick Pitino met with reporters to discuss his team’s loss to the Crimson Tide. Here’s what the legendary coach and college basketball icon said about Alabama.

Rick Pitino reflects on St. John’s loss to Alabama basketball

“Well, anytime you lose, you’re disappointed, but they were a better basketball team than us tonight. We could not guard them off the dribble. Very few teams can. They’ve got excellent offensive talent. We play these early games so we can find out where we need to get better, and obviously we know we need to get better one-on-one defense. But all three SEC teams (scheduled), Alabama creates problems off the bounce. Ole Miss plays defense like it’s their last possession in life, and Kentucky comes with 10-12 players with great size.

“So, we learned a lot tonight. Disappointed we lost, but we certainly learned a lot and we’ll get get better from it.”

Rick Pitino says St. John’s ‘wanted to play like Alabama’

Asked about the play of St. John’s guards Oziyah Sellers and Ian Jackson, Pitino said:

“On offense, they were too quick. They wanted to play like Alabama, and it’s the one thing we wanted to stay away from: quick shoot, and we were quick shooting a lot and not letting them have to play defense. Then we flipped it at the other end, and we couldn’t guard them off the bounce.

“So, our guards didn’t play particularly well tonight, but that’s because they (Alabama) have great guards.”

Rick Pitino wishes St. John’s would have been more physical against Alabama

“I’m just a little concerned that our front court doesn’t like to hit people when the shot is taken. We try to out-jump them instead of hitting people. We’ve got to learn. We made a lot of fundamental mistakes down the stretch. Even Zuby (Ejiofor) and (Dillon Mitchell), two of our captains, made fundamental mistakes when we took the the lead. So, it’s a new team. They’re getting used to each other. This is a great game to play. It’ll teach us a lot.”

Rick Pitino sums up why St. John’s lost to Alabama

St. John’s forward Bryce Hopkins finished with 19 points and four rebounds in 28 minutes against Alabama. Asked about Hopkins’ play, Pitino went on to describe why the Crimson Tide were ultimately victorious.

“He’s got to learn to take his open shot when he’s open, but he played a good game. It wasn’t anything the guys did offensively, except try to play too much like Alabama. We lost this game at the defensive end. We told them that Alabama doesn’t lose many games when you don’t turn them over more than you turn the ball over. And tonight, it was seven vs. 12 (in turnovers). It was 33-18 at the three-point line, but you have to turn them over in order to beat them, and we couldn’t do it tonight.”

St. John’s coach Rick Pitino praises Alabama for being tough to guard

Pitino was asked by a reporter if the final score was more the result of Alabama’s offense being too good, or the Johnnies’ defense not being good enough.

“Combination of both,” Pitino said. “They’re tough to guard one-on-one, and we didn’t do a good job of it. We didn’t do a good job with their slip pick-and-rolls, but they’re tough to guard. They really are.”

‘Some of the best guards in the country,’ Rick Pitino says of Labaron Philon, Aden Holloway

Asked how far St. John’s had to go to get to a place the longtime coach would be happy with, Pitino said:

“They just played a great team, second game of the season. That’s really what it comes down to. Look, we had 18 assists. We scored 96 points and they scored 103. So when you give up 103 points, you’re not going to win. We don’t have the ability to (win) 106-103. This game is only going to help us grow as a basketball team. We’ve got eight new players.”

“I think their (Alabama) guards are some of the best guards in the country. Really tough to guard. Really tough to guard, and they did the best they could. But I think it’ll be a mindset. It’s great for Ian and Joson and even Oziyah to understand that they’ve got to become great defensive players for us to beat great teams, and they’re not right now. They played against the team, but it’s only going to help them grow and take pride in their defense.

“They’re all good offensive players. It’s a great lesson for Joson how defense is so important. This team (Alabama) can make you look bad in the open court, and they did at times. But I’ll say this: they’re tough to guard.”

Rick Pitino discusses St. John’s mistakes at the end of loss to Alabama

“At the end of the game, when we took the lead, we made some bad, bad mistakes defensively,” Pitino said. “We shot the ball too quick at the offensive end, and we’re only going to learn from it.”

Pitino added that Alabama was the better team Saturday.

“But when it comes down to it, they (Alabama) were the better basketball team tonight. We played hard. We fought. It was exciting basketball, but they were better. They were better. We were not locked in together defensively. And I’ll say this: they were the more locked-in team offensively. They knew how to exploit, but they do it against everybody. And the only time they lose is when you turn them over more than you commit yourself. Tonight, we didn’t do that. We only turned them over seven times. They had nine steals to our four, so they were the better defensive team tonight.

“All our guys played hard. I told them in the locker room, ‘Look, they were the better team tonight. Don’t hang your heads. They were the better team. They outplayed us.’ But we played hard. We did a lot of good things.

“It was exciting basketball in Madison Square Garden for the second game of the season. I mean, you can go play somebody and win by 30 points. You see some of the scores last night. You get nothing out of that. I think we have the potential to be an outstanding basketball team. But as a coach, as a head coach, I need to find out where our deficiencies are, and I found out tonight. I also found out that they’re a group of guys that want to win badly. They just didn’t know how to do it tonight.”

Rick Pitino wishes Alabama basketball the best of luck

After the game, Pitino also took to social media to compliment Alabama players and coach Nate Oats.

Watch Pitino’s full postgame press conference below.

Alabama basketball schedule 2025-26

All times Central.

Nov. 3: vs. North Dakota (W, 91-62)
Nov. 8: at St. John’s (W, 103-96)
Nov. 13: vs. Purdue, 6 p.m., ESPN2
Nov. 19: vs. Illinois, 6 p.m., FS1 (in Chicago)
Nov. 24: vs. Gonzaga, 8:30 p.m. (in Las Vegas)
Nov. 25: vs. UNLV, 10:59 p.m. (in Las Vegas)
Dec. 3: vs. Clemson, 6:15 p.m., ESPNU
Dec. 7: vs. UTSA, 1 p.m., SEC Network
Dec. 13: vs. Arizona, 8:30 p.m., ESPN (in Birmingham)
Dec. 17: vs. South Florida, 7 p.m., ESPN+
Dec. 21: vs. Kennesaw State, 1 p.m. (in Huntsville)
Dec. 29: vs. Yale, 7 p.m., ESPN+
Jan. 3: vs. Kentucky, noon, ESPN
Jan. 6: at Vanderbilt, TBD
Jan. 10: vs. Texas, 7 p.m., ESPN
Jan. 13: at Mississippi State, 8 p.m., SEC Network
Jan. 17: at Oklahoma, noon, SEC Network
Jan. 24: vs. Tennessee, 7:30 p.m., ESPN
Jan. 27: vs. Missouri, 8 p.m., SEC Network
Feb. 1: at Florida, noon, ABC
Feb. 4: vs. Texas A&M, 6 p.m., SEC Network
Feb. 11: at Ole Miss, 6 p.m., SEC Network
Feb. 14: vs. South Carolina, 7:30 p.m., SEC Network
Feb. 17: vs. Arkansas, 6 p.m., TBD
Feb. 21: at LSU, 5 p.m., SEC Network
Feb. 24: vs. Mississippi State, TBD
Feb. 28: at Tennessee, TBD
March 3: at Georgia, 5:30 p.m., ESPNews
March 7: vs. Auburn, 7:30 p.m., ESPN

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This article originally appeared on Roll Tide Wire: Rick Pitino speaks out after St. John’s loss to Alabama basketball

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