St. John’s Pitino makes striking statement about NIL pay to college basketball players

St. John’s has an NIL payroll in excess of $10 million, but Rick Pitino says the money “means nothing at all” to his players.

In fact, the Naismith Hall of Fame coach says money doesn’t mean anything to the majority of college basketball players.

“You know, the greatest misconception is because they’re being paid [they don’t care about winning championships],” Pitino said Thursday on “Boomer and Gio.”

“I would say, there’s no difference than 20 years ago. The pay means nothing at all to them. Matter of fact, I would say that 90% of the players give the money to their families. So it’s really not the compensation. If you watched us practice, you wouldn’t think it was any different than 25 years ago….”

Pitino was responding to Gregg Giannotti, who said he was surprised to see that the returning St. John’s players “cared” about getting their Big East championship rings during a ceremony on Monday at Madison Square Garden.

Pitino added that he likes NIL for high-major programs like St. John’s, but said he wouldn’t like it if he were still at a mid-major like Iona.

“If I was still at Iona, it would hurt because Walter Clayton wouldn’t be at Iona, and Daniss Jenkins wouldn’t be at Iona and Nelly Junior Joseph, they would go elsewhere for the compensation,” he said. “So it hurts mid-major basketball, but it also keeps the plays around longer in college basketball.”

As far as St. John’s NIL budget, Pitino explained that super-donor “Mike Repole gives us about 40 percent of what we spend, and then we have to go raise the other 60 [percent] and pay the school back. So the school is not really giving us a whole lot.”

“We have to do it the old fashioned way and bang on doors,” Pitino said of raising NIL funds.

Pitino said Kentucky said they spent “$20-22 million” on NIL for its basketball team, and that Alabama — which St. John’s hosts on Saturday at Madison Square Garden — “probably spent $14 or $16″ million.

“They raise it privately after what the school gives,” Pitino said.

He added: “We don’t have a lot of money at St. John’s. We do have a wealthy alumni base because they did it by being passionate, hungry and driven and made it to the top of Wall Street.”

As for the professionalization of college sports, Pitino said he has to treat the players a little differently than he did at Kentucky and Louisville.

“I don’t coach the players today the same way I did at Louisville or Kentucky because they’re different,” he said. “Now I can get on them, but collectively. I can’t get on them individually because they get embarrassed very easily. Not that they’re not tough, they just get embarrassed. So I bring them in one-on-one and I show them the tape, and I show them analytically about the mistakes you’re making.

“But they’re the same players. They play just as hard as any team I’ve ever coached, it’s just you gotta handle them differently today. They’re professionals, you gotta treat them like pros. But you also have to be teachers. I teach the exact same way I did 40, 50 years ago.”