Rick Pitino, the Corridor of Fame coach who was fired from Louisville in 2017 after a string of scandals, has agreed to a six-year deal to change into the brand new males’s basketball coach at St. John’s, the college stated on Monday.
Pitino, 70, was anticipated to be launched at a information convention on Tuesday at midday at Madison Sq. Backyard, the place he coached Patrick Ewing and the Knicks within the late Nineteen Eighties and the place St. John’s performs a few of its residence video games.
The transfer was considered one of two main teaching adjustments within the Huge East Convention. Additionally on Monday, Georgetown introduced that it had employed Ed Cooley away from Windfall to switch Ewing, who was fired because the Hoyas’ coach this month. Cooley is the primary males’s coach within the league to maneuver immediately from one Huge East staff to a different.
“Rick is aware of Huge East basketball and is set to take and preserve the Crimson Storm program the place we all know it belongs,” the Rev. Brian J. Shanley, the president at St. John’s, stated in a press release.
Pitino has spent the previous three seasons at Iona College, the personal Roman Catholic faculty of about 3,000 undergraduates in New Rochelle, N.Y. Pitino led Iona on a 14-game successful streak to seize the Metro Atlantic Athletic Convention regular-season and match championships, then misplaced to Connecticut within the first spherical of the N.C.A.A. match.
Will probably be Pitino’s third stint within the Huge East Convention after teaching at Windfall and Louisville, however he received’t have to maneuver. He can stay at his residence on the Winged Foot Golf Membership in Mamaroneck, N.Y., whereas taking his star energy to video games in Jamaica, Queens, and Madison Sq. Backyard. He’s anticipated to take some members of his workers from Iona with him to St. John’s.
St. John’s fired Mike Anderson on March 10 after the staff missed three consecutive N.C.A.A. tournaments. (Anderson coached for 4 seasons, however the match was not held in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.) The Crimson Storm haven’t been to the match since 2019.
Pitino had the backing of a longtime St. John’s coach, Lou Carnesecca.
“I don’t suppose we will get a greater coach,” the 98-year-old Carnesecca instructed Fox 5 New York of Pitino earlier than Pitino’s determination was public. He added: “Proper? You’ll be able to’t deliver again Naismith.”
Pitino stated in a press release that competing in opposition to Carnesecca and St. John’s was “considered one of my nice teaching reminiscences.” He added: “It’s surreal to now have this chance to deliver St John’s again to prominence.”
Pitino met with Shanley, who spent 15 years because the president at Windfall earlier than he went to St. John’s in 2020, on Sunday on campus. Pitino laid out his imaginative and prescient for this system, which included an funding in bettering amenities. Pitino stated final week that Shanley as soon as provided him the job at Windfall whereas he was at Louisville.
Requested on Thursday if St. John’s may climb again to the heights it achieved when it reached the Closing 4 in 1985 together with its fellow Huge East members Georgetown and Villanova, Pitino stated that new guidelines in school sports activities to allow athletes to have endorsement offers allowed for any program to compete.
“Clearly you’re dropping for a cause, however anyplace might be constructed,” he stated.
Regardless of a checkered historical past that included a number of scandals whereas at Louisville, Pitino is taken into account the most effective coaches in school basketball historical past.
He’s the one coach to guide two totally different males’s applications — Kentucky and Louisville — to nationwide championships, though the 2013 title at Louisville was vacated and Pitino misplaced his job there after an F.B.I. investigation wherein two assistant coaches have been accused of funneling cash from the college’s attire sponsor, Adidas, to highschool recruits. Pitino has lengthy stated that he didn’t know in regards to the scheme, or one other involving a workers member soliciting prostitutes and strippers for gamers and recruits.
“You’ll be able to take down a banner, however you possibly can’t take down a nationwide championship,” Pitino stated final week.
Pitino left teaching for greater than a yr, then coached knowledgeable staff in Greece earlier than returning to the faculty ranks at Iona.
A number of present and former Huge East coaches imagine Pitino can be an vital — and doubtlessly scary — addition to the league.
“Something that occurs relative to applications being superstrong in our league is simply going to be useful to the Huge East,” UConn Coach Dan Hurley stated final week.
Pitino stated final week that he hoped to educate for one more decade.
“Nicely, I’m bodily match and mentally I believe I nonetheless have it,” he stated on Thursday. “However my spouse at all times says, ‘If you wish to make God giggle, make a plan.’ I believe you simply take it one yr at a time.”