


Aaron Rodgers isn’t the only one getting a new number.
For Rick Pitino, however, it’s not one on a jersey — it’s his phone number.
The St. John’s coach was captured on ABC cameras at the Garden for Game 4 between the Knicks and Cavaliers on Sunday, allowing some enterprising lip readers to ferret out the digits he was giving to someone.
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“So yesterday I was enjoying the Knicks game n someone read my lips on TV giving out my phone number,” Pitino tweeted Monday.
“Over 300 plus messages came in – here’s the bizarre news, 95% were nice n positive. I got a lead on 7 new recruits. My new cell is…”
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Rest assured, if Pitino wants to talk to you, he knows how to find you.
The 70-year-old has had a busy offseason since the Iona season ended, taking the head coaching job at St. John’s and remaking the Red Storm roster.
In recent weeks, he’s added Quinn Slazinski, Daniss Jenkins and Cruz Davis from Iona, VMI transfer Sean Conway and UConn’s Nahiem Alleyne while also being in on Niagara’s high-scoring guard Noah Thomasson, UMass wing RJ Luis and Notre Dame wing Cormac Ryan in the transfer portal.
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It’s all part of the big plans the Hall of Fame coach has for St. John’s.
It’s not going to be difficult,” Pitino said at his introductory press conference in March 21. “There is no difference between St. John’s to Connecticut, St. John’s to Marquette, St. John’s to Xavier. St. John’s is one of the legendary names in college basketball. Has it fallen on tough times? Yes, it has, but now we’re ready to fall on great times.
“Raise this roof up, because St. John’s is going to be back, I guarantee that.”
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Just cut him some slack if he’s not getting back to you right now — the man has a lot of text messages to return.