Was hiring Rick Pitino a risk worth taking for Iona?

By Troy Mauriello

Earlier this month, the Iona Gaels hired a legendary college basketball coach that will surely vault them into the national scene of the college basketball world.

Earlier this month, the Iona Gaels also hired one of the most polarizing coaches in college basketball history, who seems have controversy follow him wherever he goes.

However you choose to look at the Gaels’ hiring of Rick Pitino, you cannot deny one fact: this will change the course of the men’s basketball program, one way or another, for years to come.

On paper, the hiring of Pitino is a no-brainer, especially for a mid-major school like Iona. Pitino has coached over 1,000 college basketball games in his illustrious career, and he’s won over 70 percent of them. He’s been to six Final Fours with three different schools, and he’s won two National Championships.

So how could a coach of this caliber possibly even be on the market, let alone not be snatched up by one of the Power 5 schools with pockets much deeper than Iona? Well, here’s where that controversial past comes in.

Pitino’s 16-year tenure at Louisville was flush with success…but it was also riddled with scandal. He was the victim of an extortion attempt, stemming from an extramarital affair that he had in the late 2000’s. Louisville was forced to self-impose a postseason ban in the 2015-16 season, and eventually, the school’s 2013 National Championship was vacated by the NCAA, as a result of an escort sex scandal. That, combined with a pay-for-play scandal a few years later, led to Pitino’s ouster from the school in 2017.

So it’s certainly a risk to hire Pitino, whose acumen is unmatched but comes with a great deal of red flags. But was it worth it for Iona? Personally, I don’t believe so.

Let’s look at the positives first. Iona will certainly be at the forefront of the college basketball world, at least at the start of next season as Pitino gets started. Ticket sales should go up, every game at the Hynes Center should be sold out, merchandise will go up, and money will certainly be made. Pitino is good friends with influential media members such as Dick Vitale and Mike Francesa, which should only further the coverage Iona will receive.

On the court, there’s no denying how great of a coach Pitino is. He has already landed six recruits since his hiring less than two weeks ago, and he’s proved in the past what an exceptional recruiter he is. Going into next season, there’s no reason to believe Pitino won’t keep up the winning tradition that former head coach Tim Cluess has built in New Rochelle over the past decade.

And that final note is fantastic, but in a way it proves my point. What exactly can Rick Pitino do at Iona that is going to take the Gaels to the next level? Or, at least, to a level that Tim Cluess couldn’t reach?

The Gaels play in the MAAC, the harsh reality is that they will always be looked at as a mid-major program. Even with Pitino, they will likely never crack any Top 25 polls, or receive any serious consideration for at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament. Realistically, Iona’s ceiling is winning the MAAC, trying to avoid getting a No. 15 or 16 seed in the Tournament, and hoping to pull a first-round upset of a top-seed. Again, that’s a harsh reality, but it’s a reality nonetheless.

And let’s say Pitino does continue the winning tradition at Iona, as we all expect him to do. Again, he’s just keeping up the foundation that Cluess has set over the past decade. The only difference is, Cluess didn’t come with any baggage, or any looming threat of sanctions hanging over every win.

The best case scenario here is Pitino behaves himself, and leads the Gaels to a few conference championships and NCAA Tournaments over the next few seasons. If that does happen, does anyone really expect that the Power 5 schools won’t come calling at that point? And when they do, is it reasonable to expect Pitino to turn them, and their checkbooks, down to remain coaching at Iona?

I just don’t believe so.

Iona has made waves in the college basketball world with this hiring. The Gaels will be in the national spotlight for as long as Pitino is patrolling the sidelines. But in my opinion, the realistic rewards of this hiring simply don’t outweigh the all-too-real risks associated with it.