Rick Pitino named Iona Head Coach

When it comes to college basketball there are names synonymous with the sport.

Coaches whose persona is often as big, if not bigger than the university who employees them.

Mike Krzyzewski, John Calipari, Roy Williams, and Jay Wright.

These are names that are recognizable to even the most casual basketball fan or even to people who aren’t even sports fans at all.

They are also the only active head coaches with more NCAA titles than new Iona Men’s Basketball coach Rick Pitino.

I was one of the many scrolling up and down my social media feeds nervously looking for updates on the impending Covid-19 pandemic (or what sports league had suspended their season next)

Only to find of the most surprising college basketball stories of the year, if not the last few.

Rick Pitino has been named the new Iona Men’s Basketball coach.

When I first glanced at the headline, I had thought there had been a mistake, some kind of typo. I refreshed my feed a few times and read a few more headlines that confirmed it was indeed the truth. Rick Pitino was returning to college basketball.

As a current graduate student at Iona studying Sports Journalism it was truly surreal moment. One of the greatest and most iconic basketball coaches in the history of the sport was going to be coaching at the same school I am attending, a thought that for the basketball fan in me is still almost too good to be true.

Once I got past the initial excitement however my mind couldn’t help but think back to Rick Pitino’s tenure at the University of Louisville and the events that lead to him being let go by the University, after coaching there for over a decade.

It was an exit shrouded in controversy and uncertainty as Louisville's board voted unanimously to fire Pitino in October 2017 after allegations against Louisville that included payments of $100,000 to the family of a recruit.

No one from Louisville was arrested and Pitino has always said he was not aware of any pay-for-play scheme.

Even though Pitino has consistently claimed his innocence throughout the aftermath of the investigation the irony of hiring of a coach whose former program was enveloped in scandal that included sex parties with strippers to a small catholic college is quite glaring to say the least.

Part of my brain wonders if Iona will be big enough for someone larger than life like Pitino, who's coached some of the most notable basketball teams in history. Having the Knicks, Celtics, and Kentucky on your resume is about as big as it gets for a basketball coach. Iona is a nice school but it’s not Kentucky or even Louisville and pulling 5-star recruits like he’s used to probably won’t be as easy.

On the other hand, there may be no better place for Rick Pitino to cleanse his basketball sins of the past than at Iona. Within the tight-knit passionate community of New Rochelle Pitino might find the opportunity to have the community rally around him and shed the negativity attached to his name since the FBI scandal and finally find his happy ending.

Only time will tell.