Red Storm Hire Skilled Sailor After Leading Iona to NCAA Tourney, Rick Pitino Lands Job with St. John’s

By Dylan Flynn

On Monday, March 20, the St. John’s Red Storm introduced their newest head basketball coach Rick Pitino.

This move by St. John’s, to hire the 70-year-old Pitino, speaks volumes towards what they feel is needed to return to prominence in college basketball. The Red Storm have not made the NCAA tournament since 2019, and have not won a tournament game since 2000.

Rick Pitino is among the ranks of some of the greatest coaches of all time with an extensive resume.

He grew up in Bayville and attended St. Dominic’s High School in Oyster Bay, where he was the captain of the basketball team. After playing basketball for UMASS Amherst, he began his coaching career in 1974 as a graduate assistant for the University of Hawaii.

After becoming interim head coach and being involved in a paying players scandal, Pitino would bounce around to other coaching jobs.

He was first hired as an assistant for Syracuse under Jim Boeheim. Later, he would take a head coaching job with Boston University and lead them to their first ever NCAA tournament appearance.

After taking an assistant coaching job with the Knicks, Pitino was hired by Providence College and then Athletic Director Lou Lamoriello. Prior to hiring Pitino, the Friars won just 11 games. Two years later, they were in the Final Four under Pitino.

Pitino would go back to the Knicks in 1987 and a head coach and help them win their first division title in 20 years. He only stayed for 2 years before returning to college basketball to coach the University of Kentucky.

After being put on probation for a scandal brought on by former coach Eddie Sutton, Pitino had to rebuild Kentucky’s reputation. He would win his first NCAA title in 1996 and then return again to the title game in 97, falling short to Arizona.

Following that season, Pitino would bounce back to the NBA, this time for the Boston Celtics. His time in Boston was viewed as a failure, collecting a 102-146 record and resigning in January of 2001.

In March of 2001, Pitino would get his next job: head coach of the University of Louisville Cardinals. Possibly Pitino’s most well-known coaching tenure ,and definitely his longest at 16 years, the Cardinals won the 2013 NCAA championship and made Final Four appearances in 2005 and 2012.

Pitino’s run at Louisville came crashing down at the end when he was yet again investigated for more recruiting scandals. In the 2015-16 season, Louisville self-imposed a postseason ban as they investigated an escort scandal with recruits from 2010-2014.

In 2017, Pitino was charged with failure to monitor his program and was suspended for the first five games of the 2017-18 season. On top of that in 2017, a pay for play scandal was brought to light, stating Adidas was going to offer $100,000 to a top recruit to play for Louisville.

Pitino was subsequently fired from Louisville and would take a trip overseas to coach Greek professional teams before coming back to college basketball as the Iona head coach in 2020.

Now, Pitino has climbed the ladder a bit and taken the St. John’s job. When asked why at 70 he took the job, Pitino responded, “PHD. Passionate, hungry, and driven.” He wants to win now just as badly as the players do and believes St. John’s can do so, but believes it will take a big class of strong talent to get to that point.

No doubt, this is a great hire by the Red Storm and shows they are serious about winning, but can Pitino re-establish a clean record in his hometown?