Rick Pitino's St. John's Loses to Division II Pace in Exhibition Ahead of CBB Season

St. John's is not getting off to the best of starts under Rick Pitino.

The men's basketball team lost to Division II Pace on Sunday, 63-59, in an exhibition that saw the Red Storm shoot an abysmal 26 percent from the field (6-of-34).

St. John's paid Pace $5,000 to participate in the exhibition matchup, with head coach Matt Healing telling ESPN's Myron Medcalf that, "For us Division II programs, every little bit helps."

He added that Pitino was "gracious and complimentary" in defeat.

"[Pitino] was just very complimentary," he noted. "He said, 'Great game. You guys deserve this. Heckuva job coaching. Your kids fought like hell.' That's really what it was about. We were thankful."

St. John's opened its exhibition schedule ahead of the 2023-24 regular season with an 89-78 win over Rutgers, and on Sunday was without key players in Joel Soriano and Jordan Dingle. With Pitino bringing aboard 10 transfers after taking the job, there were bound to be some hiccups for the Red Storm.

It just wasn't expected to come against a DII school like Pace.