Rick Pitino says when it comes to turning around a program, 'Any place can be built'
Iona head coach Rick Pitino during a practice session ahead of the first round of the NCAA Tournament at MVP Arena on Thursday in Albany. Credit: Getty Images/Rob Carr
ALBANY — St. John’s can rise again. Rick Pitino believes it. And he could be the one who sees it through.
Since St. John’s announced it was moving on from Mike Anderson last Friday, the Hall of Fame coach currently guiding Iona has emerged as the top candidate for a program that’s been in a quarter-century slide from national prominence.
At Thursday’s interview sessions before Friday’s NCAA Tournament games at MVP Arena, Pitino wouldn’t specifically address his candidacy to lead the Red Storm.
However, when asked about St. John’s returning to its once- lofty place in college basketball, he replied: “Any program can be built, but you have to change the culture [and] you have to change the players because, obviously, you’re losing for a reason. But any place can be built.”
Pitino, who was born in Manhattan and grew up on Long Island, performed such rebuilds at Kentucky and Louisville. With him at the helm, each returned to the national spotlight and ultimately won national championship games.
“There’s one common denominator in every job I’ve taken over: poor facilities [and] poor culture,” Pitino said. “Kentucky was awful. They didn’t have a weight room . . . Louisville, the same thing. They didn’t have a practice facility.”
St. John’s has made renovations to Carnesecca Arena in recent years — new seats and lighting, for example — but it’s arguably the worst facility that hosts any Big East games. The Red Storm do play some games at Madison Square Garden — the best venue the conference uses — but poor play and low fan turnout at the Garden have led to fewer MSG dates. Installing Pitino surely would change that.
Pitino will be 71 when the next college basketball season begins; however, he made retiring from the profession sound like something distant.
Asked if he could coach another 10 seasons, as some have suggested, Pitino said, “My desire would be to coach that long . . . The two years I was out of coaching was the most miserable two years of my life because I missed it so much. I love teaching, I love coaching, I love motivating — everything about it — and I missed it terribly . . . I hope I can coach for another 12 years, but I’ll take six or seven.”
Anderson was let go after four seasons without reaching an NCAA Tournament.
The MAAC champion Gaels (27-7) are seeded 13th in the West and will play a first-round game against UConn on Friday.
On several occasions Thursday, Pitino said he is the center of speculation without specifically mentioning St. John’s.
“You’re not hired by the internet,” he said. “My players, it’s not a distraction for them at all . . . I’ve always taken it as a compliment throughout all the years that if somebody else is interested in you, I’m very thankful for that, but I never pay attention to it.”
“The internet is going to talk,” Iona sophomore guard Walter Clayton Jr. said. “We just talk about who’s going to win games, and that’s it.”
Pitino simultaneously communicated that there are many things that could keep him at Iona and that playing in a single-bid conference like the MAAC is frustrating.
“I have a terrific team coming back . . . four starters are returning [plus] two or three guys coming off the bench,” Pitino said. “So that’s really important to me as well. I look at that as the No. 1 factor in my life. So . . . it’s going to take a special place for me to consider leaving.
“I have felt more pressure at Iona than any other time — Kentucky, Louisville, the Knicks, Celtics — with these three games you have to win to get in the tournament because I love this tournament so much.”
“[With] Kentucky or Louisville or Providence, if you lose in the [conference] tournament, you go from a 2 seed to a 3 seed or a 4 seed.”
Pitino also volunteered that St. John’s president Rev. Brian Shanley, when he was president at Providence, offered him a move from Louisville to coach the Friars. He added that he’d recently spoken with current Providence coach Ed Cooley, who called Shanley “a superstar.”
Elaborating on the idea of rebuilding programs in this day and age, Pitino cited the growing role of the transfer portal and the influx of money for athletes through "Name Image and Likeness’' agreements as ways to bring about change quickly.
Since the NCAA began permitting student-athletes to profit from the NIL agreements, supporters of college programs have been able to form collectives and pay players for services (such as an autograph-signing, for example) as long as the schools is not involved in making the agreements.
Pitino said that while he doesn’t support the concept in its current form, it is here to stay and “if you have these collectives, then you go out there and you get yourself free agents.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
