Rick Pitino was obviously thrilled with St. John’s big week, his team’s one-sided road wins at Butler and Creighton.

He wouldn’t call those two victories, in which the Johnnies outscored the opposition by a combined 31 points, a turning point.

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No, he felt that happened even before that, following a disappointing loss to Kentucky. In a team meeting, Pitino showed them film of how often last year’s team got the ball to Zuby Ejiofor in the low block and how frequently they were missing him.

“I said, that’s the difference in the team,” Pitino recalled Monday as the Red Storm prepared to host struggling Marquette on Tuesday at the Garden. “Then they started throwing Zuby the ball and a light bulb went off in their heads, and they got the ball back.”