St. John's HC Rick Pitino Says the Point Guard is 'Totally Done' in Today's Basketball

St. John's head men's basketball coach Rick Pitino made a bold declaration Tuesday regarding the state of point guards in basketball.

According to NJ.com's Adam Zagoria, the Hall of Famer said at a scrimmage that he does not plan to utilize a true point guard during the 2025-26 college basketball season, adding, "The point guard is totally done in basketball."

The 72-year-old Pitino suggested that it will be in the Red Storm's best interest to simply utilize their best players rather than worrying about specific positions, saying: "We just realized that we have so many good athletes that we're going to run a pointless system."

Pitino is one of the most successful and decorated coaches in college basketball history, having won national championships at Kentucky and Louisville.

After leading Iona to the NCAA tournament twice during his three seasons at the school, Pitino became the head coach at St. John's in 2023.

St. John's missed the tourney with a 20-13 record during Pitino's first season at the helm, but the Red Storm took a huge leap forward in Year 2 thanks to a strong recruiting and transfer class.

They ended up finishing 31-5, winning the Big East and reaching the second round of the NCAA tournament.

As a result, Pitino was named the Associated Press College Basketball Coach of the Year and the Big East Coach of the Year.

Point guard Kadary Richmond played a big role in the team's success last season, averaging a team-leading 5.3 assists per game to go along with 12.4 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.0 steals.

However, with Richmond moving on to the NBA, the Red Storm no longer have a clear starting point guard on the roster.

Idaho State transfer Dylan Darling is a true point guard who averaged 5.7 assists per game last season, but he played on the second team during Tuesday's scrimmage. Zagoria added that North Carolina transfer Ian Jackson may also serve as the Storm's lead guard at times, although he is more of a natural shooting guard.

Pitino went on to say that "everybody" will handle and pass the ball rather than relying on only one guy, calling the players "interchangeable parts" in a motion system due to the fact that they are all "really physically skilled."

In an effort to further drive home his point, Pitino expressed his belief that the true point guard isn't even really present in the NBA anymore.

Pitino called Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers "the last one," adding that "the days of John Stockton are long gone."

There can still be a great deal of value in a true point guard from a playmaking perspective, but Pitino's point is well taken in terms of playing your best players regardless of positional norms.

That could create issues at times in pressure situations when it would behoove the team to have one ball-handler it can trust, but Pitino is seemingly going all in on the idea that he can use the aggregate to cover for the lack of one go-to guy.