Rick Pitino spoke the cold, hard truth about NIL after St. John's defeated Seton Hall behind a big game from one of his opponent's former players. Kadary Richmond would not be playing for the Red Storm if the Pirates had enough money to pay him a salary competitive to other programs.
Richmond, a fifth-year senior, began his college basketball career at Syracuse as a four-star prospect in the recruiting Class of 2020. He later transferred to Seton Hall after his freshman season and became one of the best backcourt players in the country during three seasons in South Orange, New Jersey.
The 6-foot-6, 205-pound guard led the Pirates to an NIT championship last season while averaging 15.7 points, 7.0 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 2.2 steals per game. Richmond earned All-Big East honors in 2024.
Unfortunately, Seton Hall was unable to afford Kadary Richmond after his true senior year. Head coach Shaheen Holloway could not offer him enough money to stay. As a result, he entered the transfer portal as a graduate transfer with one year of eligibility remaining. The 23-year-old was widely considered to be the top transfer in the country.
St. John's presented Richmond with an NIL deal worth close to seven figures. He committed to play for Pitino shortly thereafter.
The Red Storm played the Pirates in their home gym on Saturday. They won by 28 points. Richmond scored 12 points with five rebounds, six assists and two steals in the victory over his former team.
Based Rick Pitino was completely honest about the role money played in St. John's win over Seton Hall. The Hall of Fame coach admitted that he is able to spend a lot more money to assemble his rosters than Shaheen. That includes the addition of Richmond.
If the money was the same, he'd be playing for Shaheen. If the money was close, he'd be playing for Shaheen [...]
It's not a level playing field. Right now they don't have the revenue that most of the other teams have. Probably it's the lowest in the league.
It is not a secret that college athletic departments with large NIL funds at their disposal have a leg up on schools with less, especially in recruiting. This kind of financial discrepancy exists in every sport -- football, baseball, basketball, soccer, etc. -- but it really shows up in football and basketball.
However, while most coaches are complaining about tampering, Rick Pitino is calling it how it is. He might be the first coach in any sport to just come out and say what he said. St. John's bought Kadary Richmond with an NIL deal Seton Hall could not afford. The Red Storm then used the Pirates' former best player to beat them at home.