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Duke has a bit of a history with Rick Pitino. Most obviously, Duke beat his very gutty 1992 Kentucky team that forced overtime in the Elite Eight, which led to Christian Laettner’s iconic shot and a legendary 104-103 win.
That’s not the only time that Pitino encountered Duke.
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In 2012, Duke and Louisville played in the Bahamas, with Duke winning, 76-71. In 2013, Louisville beat Duke in the Elite Eight, a game that saw Kevin Ware suffer one of the most gruesome injuries ever seen in a basketball game. What we remember is Tyler Thornton being completely (and understandably) freaked out. If you feel a need to see it, go ahead. But you’ll have to sign in to YouTube because it’s pretty graphic. Be forewarned (he made a full recovery, thankfully).
Duke won at Louisville in 2015, then again in 2016 at home. Louisville won a couple of weeks later in the Yum! Center.
Pitino and Louisville beat Duke in 2017 at home, then lost to the Blue Devils in the ACC Tournament that year.
After St. John’s win over Kansas last weekend, Pitino got to his press conference and quickly mentioned the ‘92 game and how he’d still like some vengeance. That was 34 years ago. Some games leave marks, and that one did.
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But if you listen to your Inner K™, you’ll know that Pitino is thinking about failure, and that’s not necessarily a recipe for success today.
And today, Pitino has a formidable team.
On January 3rd, St. John’s lost to weak Providence and was a middling 9-5. The Johnnies have lost just once since then, a 72-40 beatdown at the hands of UConn (they paid them back for that with a 72-52 pounding in the Big East tournament).
After the win over Kansas, St. John’s is now 30-6. Obviously, that’s a huge turnaround.
That’s against a Big East that’s pretty down, though, with only three tournament teams. How did the Johnnies do otherwise?
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Earlier, they lost to Alabama, 103-96, to Iowa State, 83-82, to Auburn, 85-74, to Kentucky, 78-66, and to…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/next-st-john-coming-2026-130200579.html
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Publish date : 2026-03-25 13:02:00
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