Rick Pitino knows anything can happen in March Madness with St. Johns even worst-case scenario

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Even as the wins have piled up and sixth-ranked St.John’s has carved out the school’s best regular season in 25 years, Rick Pitino has maintained that his team can beat anybody, but also lose to anyone.A Big East regular-season title hasn’t changed his mind.

The Johnnies can go far in March, but they can also get picked off early, the Hall of Fame coach believes.“We are a type of basketball team, we can definitely lose in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and we can definitely go to a Final Four,” Pitino said during an appearance on WFAN on Monday.“We beat Providence by two both times, and Providence is not lighting the league on fire.

That’s who we are: We are a gritty, hard-working team, and that’s what it should be in Year 2.Year 2 should be, you turned it around.

The start was the first year, you turned it around the second year, you made the tournament.“We know who we are.If we don’t just work every single possession, we can get beat, because it’s proven out to be that way the whole season.”St.

John’s (26-4, 17-2) hasn’t lost at full strength since New Year’s Eve, and has won 15 of its last 16 games.The Johnnies clinched an outright Big East crown on Saturday, the program’s first since 1985, and will be the No.1 seed in the Big East Tournament.They will have had a full week off before visiting No.

20 Marquette, and then five more days off before the conference tournament opener.With several players dealing with injuries, from Kadary Richmond (both groins) to Aaron Scott (hamstring) the break comes at a good time.“One of the things that people don’t realize, we’ve had major injuries and have not faltered,” the St.

John’s coach said.“Deivon [Smith] missed quite a few games, Kadary’s missed quite a few practices, Aaron’s missed time, RJ [Luis Jr.] has missed time...