March Madness is well underway, and with it comes a tradition that’s as predictable as a 12-5 upset. It’s the speculation surrounding successful coaches at small schools, who are often rumored to be in contention for higher-profile coaching positions.
This year’s twist? The coach in question is Rick Pitino, a 70-year-old two-time national champion and Hall of Fame inductee with a four-decade-long career that has been riddled with scandal.
Pitino is the head coach of Iona, a private Catholic school in New Rochelle, New York. He has led the Gaels to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in his three seasons, winning the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship. As his team prepares to face the fourth-seeded Connecticut in the first round of the West Region, Pitino finds himself once again fielding questions about his future, as rumors swirl about his potential candidacy for higher-profile coaching positions at schools like St. John’s, Georgetown, or Texas Tech.
Despite the distraction, Pitino insists that his players are focused on the task at hand, and that he himself is paying little attention to the rumors. “You’re not hired by the internet,” he quipped to reporters. “I’ve always taken it as a compliment throughout all the years that if somebody else is interested in you, very thankful for that, but I never pay attention to it.”
Pitino’s coaching career is undeniably impressive. In 34 full seasons as a college head coach, he has led all five of the schools he’s coached to the NCAA Tournament, won national championships at Kentucky and Louisville, and boasts a .741 winning percentage. However, his time in the NBA was less successful, with just one playoff appearance between his stints with the New York Knicks and the Boston Celtics.
Pitino’s coaching career has also been plagued by scandal. In 2015, Louisville was implicated in an FBI investigation into college basketball corruption, and it was revealed that an assistant coach had paid escorts and exotic dancers to entertain players and recruits in campus dorms. The NCAA later vacated the team’s 2013 national championship title. Pitino himself was exonerated of any wrongdoing by the NCAA’s Independent Accountability Resolutions Process, which found that “no violation by (Pitino) occurred given that he demonstrated he promoted an atmosphere of compliance.”
There have also been personal scandals, including a criminal case involving a woman who was found guilty of trying to extort Pitino. Before he could serve his five-game suspension for the NCAA case, Pitino was fired by Louisville in 2017.
Despite these setbacks, Pitino is back in play for big schools, with St. John’s and Georgetown being potential options that could bring him back into the Big East. Pitino is widely respected in the basketball world, with Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim stating that he is “probably the best basketball coach I’ve seen or gone up against,” and New Mexico coach Richard Pitino, Rick’s son and former assistant, noting that his father was held accountable for the actions of those who worked for him.
Pitino’s coaching career spans over 40 years, during which he has coached at several notable programs, including Providence, Kentucky, Louisville, the Knicks, and Celtics. He has faced intense pressure at each of these programs, but he has also experienced success, including a memorable Final Four run with Providence in 1987 and a national title with Louisville.
In the end, Pitino is focused on his love for basketball, which he has expressed in practice by saying, “I’ll die for basketball. I want to die on a basketball court.” While he is content at Iona, he admits that it would take a special place for him to consider leaving. Regardless of where his career takes him, Pitino’s passion for the sport and his proven track record make him a valuable asset for any program that hires him.
The Pitino led Iona Gaels take on the UConn Huskies today in first round action at 4:30 PM.
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