As it turns out, Rick Pitino won’t be staying with the Iona Gaels and is headed back to the Big East, joining St. John’s as their next head coach.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Pete Thamel, the Hall-of-Fame coach is in agreement with the Red Storm on a six-year deal. If Pitino stays with St. John’s through the length of his six-year contract and possibly more, that would line up with what he said last week ahead of Iona’s first-round NCAA Tournament game when he stated that he’d like to coach for another decade.
However, the decision to bolt from the Gaels somewhat contradicts his words from the same presser where he hinted that he’d be staying in New Rochelle, N.Y. When asked about the swirling rumors of his possible departure from Iona, Pitino said (among other things) “it’s going to take a special place for me to consider leaving.”
The 13th-seeded Gaels fell to No. 4 UConn in Friday’s first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Red Storm will be the 71-year-old’s seventh Division I head-coaching gig. Pitino (who also had runs with the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks) had a career-long 16-year stay with Louisville from 2001 to 2017.
The two-time reigning Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Coach of the Year won a national title with Kentucky in 1996 and with the Louisville Cardinals in 2013 (though that championship was later vacated). Throughout his career with the Cardinals, Gaels, Wildcats, Hawaii, Boston University and Providence, Pitino led teams to six Final Fours (two of which were vacated).
In addition to St. John’s, another recent big-time vacancy was Georgetown, which led to plenty of Pitino-Hoya rumors. Georgetown officially hired former Providence head coach Ed Cooley on Monday.
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