Iona hires Rick Pitino

Rick Pitino has been named the Iona Gaels basketball coach. Yes, that Rick Pitino. You will be hard pressed to find a bigger name in the landscape that is college basketball. He is a household name for many reasons, although not all of them are good. I will start with the good. Rick Pitino has done it all. He has been the head coach at several big time college basketball programs such as Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville. He has been to the final four seven times, taking three different universities there. He has won two National Championships, and was the first coach to do it at two separate schools. He is one of the first coaches to take advantage of the three point shot in college hoops. He has coached the New York Knicks as well as the Boston Celtics. Many of his former players have gone on to have very successful NBA careers such as Jamal Mashburn, Terry Rozier, and Motrezl Harrell to name a few. Many of his former assistant coaches have gone on to become very successful coaches in their own rights such as Tubby Smith, Seton Hall and former Iona coach Kevin Willard, and the Oklahoma City Thunder headman Billy Donovan.

Unfortunately, along with his success, there has been tons of controversy. Most notably, he was fired by Louisville for failure to monitor his program during a sex-for-pay scandal. The scandal involved an assistant coach hiring strippers to have sex with recruits and their parents on campus dorms. There was also a scandal with an Adidas rep paying a recruit $100,000 to attend Louisville. There was also an incident of Pitino having sex with a woman in a restaurant who would later try to extort him financially. Because of these incidents the NCAA stripped Louisville of their 2013 title and Pitino was ousted at Louisville.

After legendary Iona Coach Tim Cluess retired from coaching, Pitino seemingly came out of nowhere and was hired to replace him. He last coached in Greece before making his return to the states. There have been varying opinions on whether Iona made the right decision and hiring a coach with such a complicated past. On one hand many will question whether a coach like Pitino would fit the “values” of a Catholic college like Iona. Well, if you ask me I think Iona made a bold decision but ultimately the right one. Pitino was cleared by a court of law of any wrongdoing. Whether you want to publicly convict him or not is up to you but I’ll go with what the courts say. From a basketball standpoint, it’s an absolute home run. Iona is used to winning and before this season, has won four start MAAC championships. Pitino will win, and he will win big. I think Iona will hit a new level and become a power that has rarely been seen by a school the MAAC conference. Not only will he win, the publicity from such a high profile basketball coach can do tremendous things for the college as well as the city of New Rochelle.

So to me, the potential of what Rick Pitino can bring to Iona far outweigh any negative backlash or moral shaming the school may receive in the wake of its star studded hire. It is a risk, but one that can provide a serious reward.

-Taylor McHugh