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Rick Pitino is BACK in the Big Apple! Hall of Famer – and former Knicks coach – ‘agrees to six-year contract with St. John’s’ after resurrecting his career at Iona following scandal-plagued tenure at Louisville
Rick Pitino is back in the Big Apple.
More than 34 years after coaching the New York Knicks, the 70-year-old Hall of Famer has reportedly agreed to a deal to coach a St. John’s University in Queens – a former Big East power that has gone dormant in recent years.
ESPN is reporting that it is a six-year deal for Pitino, although financial terms have not been disclosed.
Pitino has been coaching at Iona in nearby New Rochelle, New York since 2020. He brought the Gaels back to the NCAA Tournament for a second time in three seasons this year before suffering a first-round loss to Connecticut.
More than 34 years after coaching the New York Knicks , the 70-year-old Hall of Famer has reportedly agreed to a deal to coach a St. John’s University in Queens – a former Big East power that has gone dormant in recent years
Rick Pitino left Providence College – a Big East rival of St. John’s – to coach the Knicks in 1987
Pitino broke into the Big East as a head coach at Providence in 1986 and made one of the most memorable Final Four runs in tournament history with the Friars in 1987.
St. John’s, which fired Mike Anderson after the Big East Tournament, was a power in the conference back then, but the Red Storm have slipped into a long run of mediocrity over the last two decades.
Pitino has won national championships with Kentucky and Louisville, but he was fired by Louisville before the 2017-18 season after an FBI investigation into college basketball led to allegations of NCAA violations.
It was the third scandal, both personal and professional, in an eight-year period with Louisville.
Ultimately, Pitino was exonerated in the FBI-related case — which he reminded everyone about at his postgame news conference Friday — five years after he was fired.
‘So for five years they put me in the outhouse because they couldn’t get their stuff together,’ Pitino told reporters.
‘So it’s just the breaks of the game. You can’t look back. The past, it’s always cherished. You learn from it, you cherish the past. I’ve been to seven Final Fours, two championships, and I cherish that. I also learn from the mistakes that were made,’ he said.
After resigning in Boston, Pitino resurfaced with his former rival, Louisville, in 2001
Pitino has won national championships with Kentucky and Louisville, but he was fired by Louisville before the 2017-18 season after an FBI investigation into college basketball led to allegations of NCAA violations
Pitino was 64-22 in three years with Iona of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, including two NCAA Tournament appearances. The small Catholic school in New Rochelle, New York, just north of the city, hired him with the NCAA cloud still over his head, but it’s a long way from the Big East.
He lamented earlier this week the pressure of being in a one-NCAA bid conference. After getting routed by UConn in the second half, he talked about how the Gaels just couldn’t match up physically with one of the best teams in the country.
‘The present is where we’re at right now, and it’s disappointing for my guys because they’re a great group of kids,’ Pitino said. ‘In the future, I have really no idea what the future may bring because I’ve got to look at the grand scheme of things about winning, and winning is very important because we all work so hard, every coach works so hard.’
There are currently two NBA coaches who played for Pitino: Chicago’s Billy Donovan at Providence College and Indiana’s Rick Carlisle with the Knicks.
Pitino also previously coached former Philadelphia 76ers coach Brent Brown at Boston University.
Bill Russell, left, and Boston Celtics coach Rick Pitino talk after a pre-season workout at the Celtics’ training facility in Waltham, Massachusetts in 1999. Pitino would resign in 2001
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