St. John’s coach Rick Pitino is frank about his team’s lack of ‘attitude’

The last time Rick Pitino was seen in the Big East, his team had become the dominant force.

Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Connecticut and Georgetown were the conference powers when Louisville joined up in 2005. By the time they exited after 2013, Pitino’s Cardinals had won three of the previous five conference tournaments.

On Friday, as St. John’s readied to face No. 17 Marquette in Saturday’s noon matchup at the Garden, Pitino was asked why his teams performed so well in conference tournaments. He started his reply by saying those Louisville teams kept improving during the season and peaked in March before drawing a contrast with his current team.

“Those guys were killers,” Pitino added. “They were killers every single game. They wanted to go out there every single game and dominate, and that type of attitude is not what we have now .  .  . You don’t have to have extraordinary talent to have that type of attitude. We don’t have that. Two of our guys do, [Daniss Jenkins] and [Zuby Ejiofor].”

Pitino has taken a group filled with offensive-minded players and shaped it into a very solid defensive team. But can he now coax the attitude adjustment to turn them into, as he said, “killers”?

“You have to be upbeat every single day, you can’t be moody,” he said. “You have to be upbeat, you have to be positive. You have to forget about Seton Hall. We’ll know that tomorrow.”

Pitino never used the word “consistency,” but that is what he is pleading for right now from his team.

On Wednesday, St. John’s (12-6, 4-3) turned in its worst performance in months, allowing 28 straight points in a beatdown at Seton Hall while Pitino was absent with COVID-19.

“We just had one of those nights where we didn’t bring it, and if this team is not clicking on all cylinders from an effort standpoint, they’re going to get beat — we have no chance of winning,” he said. “We’re not talented [enough], tall enough, athletic enough to overcome not giving an…