NEW YORK - Rick Pitino and St. John’s lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to an SEC team - John Calipari-coached Arkansas - last March.

The No. 5 Red Storm began this season by losing their second game to another team from that conference on Saturday - falling 103-96 to high-octane No. 15 Alabama - before 17,319 at Madison Square Garden.

“You’re not going to win when you give up 103 points, you’re not going to win,” Pitino lamented in the Garden press room. “We don’t have the ability to score 106-103, so this game is only going to help us grow as a basketball team. We’ve got eight new players. I think their guards are some of the better guards in the country, really tough to guard, really tough to guard, and they did the best they could.”

If you include the Georgia loss

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