Sports
St. John’s Is Back, Rick Pitino’s Big Mouth Is Louder, and the Big East Title Is Theirs
Feb 23, 2025; New York, New York, USA; St. John’s Red Storm head coach Rick Pitino signals in the second half against the Connecticut Huskies at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images When No. 7 St. John’s beat Butler on Wednesday night, the Red Storm clinched at least a share of the Big East title for the first time since 1992.
Cue Rick Pitino: “We are not interested in sharing anything.”
St. John’s is getting the full Pitino experience: an unmistakable personality, some eye-catching quotes for better or worse, and a whole lot of winning.
Maybe we all should have seen this coming. You can make the argument that no modern coach does a better job of instilling his ethos into a new program and getting near-immediate results.
All of his teams, from Providence to Kentucky to Louisville and even Iona, made a dramatic jump between Year 1 and Year 2, as documented here by college basketball mensch Trilly Donovan. At St. John’s, Pitino’s first season ended with a 20-13 record and an NCAA Tournament snub—not the worst place to start.
Now the Red Storm are 25-4 and a realistic candidate for the Final Four.
Think back to Feb. 18, 2024, when St. John’s blew a 19-point lead at home to lose to Seton Hall. Pitino laid into his players postgame.
“We are so nonathletic that we can’t guard anybody without fouling,” Pitino said, before naming five of his players and calling them “slow laterally” or “physically weak.”
It felt brutal at the time. You do that behind closed doors, not at the microphone, some declared (I may have been among them). But the wiser among us could recognize a motivational tactic when they saw one.
Since that day, St. John’s has gone a ridiculous 31-5. Talk about a turning point.
Granted, this year’s group is far different than last year’s. Such is life in the transfer portal era. But Pitino has proven well-equipped for that. At Big East media day, he didn’t hesitate to speak about the money being on the table now instead of under it.
However you feel about his past or his persona, this is a man who knows how to attract talent. And then he squeezes out their full potential.
This season, he pieced together an all-transfer backcourt of Kadary Richmond, Deivon Smith and Aaron Scott while building up Zuby Ejiofor into a real threat on the block (from 4.3 points and 3.1 rebounds per game last year to 14.0 ppg and 8.1 rpg now). Then there’s captain RJ Luis Jr. on the wing, the leading scorer who does a little of everything well.
VICE cameras shooting a documentary series captured Pitino giving his players a fiery halftime speech earlier this season when they were losing to Providence. Free from digs about physical weakness and lateral slowness, it was a message about learning how to handle adversity instead of wilting in the face of it. St. John’s held Providence to 28 points in the second half of that game and won 72-70 on Ejiofor’s last-second shot.
His players were fired up, but Pitino’s son Richard, the coach at New Mexico, had a different reaction. “PTSD of the time I didn’t make my bed,” he wrote on X.
Like father, like son. They’ll keep the quips coming, and the wins to back them up.
Sports
Braves open four-game set with low-scoring win over Padres
Jul 20, 2026; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Bryce Elder (55) throws against the San Diego Padres in the second inning at Truist Park. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images
Michael Harris II and Ozzie Albies hit solo home runs and Bryce Elder pitched six strong innings to help the Atlanta Braves beat the visiting San Diego Padres 3-2 on Monday in the opener of their four-game series.
It was Atlanta’s first win in four tries against the San Diego. The Braves are 3-1 and the Padres are 1-3 since the All-Star break.
Harris went deep in the fifth to tie the game and Albies homered in the sixth, although their streak of nine consecutive home games with at least five runs came to an end.
Elder (6-6) allowed two runs on five hits and one walk, striking out four. Victor Mederos pitched the final 2 1/3 innings and earned his first career save.
San Diego’s Ty France extended his hitting streak to a season-high eight games with a single in the fourth and homered to start the seventh. It was his 15th of the year, the fifth during his hitting streak, and forced Elder to leave the game.
San Diego starter JP Sears (2-3) pitched five innings and allowed two runs (one earned) on three hits with three strikeouts. Sears retired the first 10 batters he faced until Albies lined a one-handed single into left with one out in the fourth.
Manny Machado, who caught the Braves off-balance with a bunt single in the first inning, went back to the power game in the fourth when he smacked a hanging breaking ball for a home run and a 1-0 Padres lead. Machado’s 20th homer sailed 402 feet and just cleared the yellow line on the fence in left-center field.
The Braves took a 2-1 lead in the fifth. Harris hit his 18th home run, a 341-foot solo shot that just made it over the top of the brick wall in right field. Mauricio Dubon then reached on catcher’s interference and scored when Joey Bart lined a double into the left field corner.
Atlanta struck again in the sixth off reliever Wandy Peralta when Albies hit a solo homer, his 15th and first since July 3, for what would be the winning run.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Cubs place RHP Phil Maton on IL, activate RHP Jameson Taillon
Jun 11, 2026; Denver, Colorado, USA; Chicago Cubs pitcher Phil Maton (88) delivers a pitch in the seventh inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images For the third time in 2026, the Chicago Cubs placed right-handed reliever Phil Maton on the 15-day injured list on Monday due to continuing struggles with right knee tendinitis.
Manager Craig Counsell told reporters before the series opener vs. Detroit that Maton, 33, underwent an MRI and the results were not encouraging.
“We were all optimistic,” Counsell said of Maton’s return to action against Minnesota on Sunday. “He thought, we thought, we were in a pretty good place. … We’re looking at a little bit more extended absence here.”
Maton threw 23 pitches in the eighth inning of the 10-1 victory over the Twins. He hit the strike zone 19 times, but did allow one run, two hits and a walk.
But the 10-year veteran felt a flare-up of the right knee symptoms, according to Counsell.
Maton had last pitched on June 25 and was activated from the 15-day IL on July 11.
He made five appearances in March and April before hitting the injured list for the first time after an April 7 outing in Tampa Bay.
Maton, who pitched to a 2.79 ERA with the Cardinals and Rangers in 2025, signed a two-year, $14.5 million contract this winter to serve in a high-leverage capacity for the Cubs.
In 31 games this season, he is 0-1 with a 6.18 ERA and 1.81 WHIP, fanning 31 batters and walking 16 walks in 27 2/3 innings.
The Cubs added Aaron Civale (5-7, 5.42 ERA) to the roster on Monday after acquiring him on Athletics on Saturday.
In addition, Chicago activated Jameson Taillon (hamstring) from the injured list and he made the start against the Tigers on Monday. Taillon pitched 4 1/3 innings and allowed four runs on five hits, walking two and fanning six.
To make room for Taillon, the Cubs designated left-handed reliever Drew Pomeranz for assignment.
–Field Level Media
Sports
14 in a row: Red Sox down Orioles on Caleb Durbin homer
Jul 20, 2026; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras (40) hits a one run RBI double against the Baltimore Orioles during the sixth inning at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Eric Canha-Imagn Images Caleb Durbin hit a solo home run to break a tie score in the eighth inning as the Boston Red Sox extended their winning streak to 14 games by beating the visiting Baltimore Orioles, 6-5, Monday night.
Durbin’s homer came against reliever Tyler Wells (2-2) and broke a 5-5 tie. It was his 10th home run of the season.
Baltimore had runners on second and third with two outs in the ninth, but Tyler O’Neill lined out to shortstop to end the game. Garrett Whitlock (5-1) pitched a scoreless eighth to earn the win. Aroldis Chapman worked the ninth for his 22nd save.
Christian Encarnacion-Strand homered and Gunnar Hunderson had three doubles for the Orioles, who committed four errors. The loss ended Baltimore’s seven-game winning streak.
Boston received three hits from Willson Contreras.
The Orioles struck first when Henderson and O’Neill hit back-to-back doubles with two outs in the top of the first.
Jarren Duran’s sacrifice fly drove in Contreras to make it a 1-1 game in the second, and the Red Sox added two runs in the third. Ceddanne Rafaela reached base on an error by second baseman Jeremiah Jackson, took third on Wilyer Abreu’s double and scored on a Henderson throwing error from first base. Contreras followed with an infield single that scored Abreu to extend Boston’s lead to 3-1.
Baltimore trimmed Boston’s advantage to 3-2 when Encarnacion-Strand hit a solo home run in the fifth, and Jackson’s RBI single in the sixth drove in O’Neill to tie the game, 3-3. Baltimore went ahead 4-3 on an Encarnacion-Strand single that scored Leody Taveras later in the sixth.
Abreu scored on a Contreras double in the bottom half of the sixth to pull the Red Sox even, 4-4.
Taylor Ward put Baltimore in front 5-4 by scoring from third on an O’Neill groundout in the seventh, but Boston answered in the bottom of the inning when Tsung-Che Cheng scored on a throwing error by Ward in left field.
Durbin’s home run capped the scoring with two outs in the bottom of the eighth.
–Field Level Media
Braves open four-game set with low-scoring win over Padres
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