Iona ‘s Rick Pitino becomes 3rd College Coach to Bring 5 Programs to NCAA Tournament

On the second Saturday of March 2020, Iona College hired Rick Pitino – much to the dismay of the college basketball community.

Although Pitino was already in the Naismith Hall of Fame and considered one of the greatest college coaches of all time, he came to Iona with multi-scandal luggage happening on his watch in Louisville, where released in 2017 amid an FBI investigation involving two aides Coaches under Pitino have been accused of sending money from a school uniform assistant, Adidas, to high school soldiers . Pitino has long said he was unaware of the scheme, or else involving a worker looking for prostitutes and prostitutes for players and recruiters.

However, those closest to Pitino believed he deserved another chance and would restore Iona ‘s winning tradition.

“It will build the Iona program,” said Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, a longtime friend and colleague in Pitino, when Pitino was hired.

“They have had a good program. Coach [Tim] Cluess did an incredible job, so it’s not like they’re at the bottom of a rock. They have had a good run. But he is a good coach. He has won everywhere he has been. He won in Greece, he won at BU, he won at Providence, he has won almost everywhere. ”

And now he has won at Iona, too.

Almost a year to the day after his hiring, Pitino became the third Division 1 men’s coach to lead five programs to the NCAA Tournament when the No. 9 Highlanders beat Fairfield No. 7, 60-51 , in the MAAC Championship game at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. Asshte Gist (18 points) and Isaiah Ross (13) came together for 31 points when the Highlanders won their fourth game in four days.

Pitino, 68, joins Tubby Smith and Lon Kruger at that select club after taking Boston, Providence, Kentucky and Louisville Universities to the NCAA Tournament. He led three of those shows to the Four Finals – Providence, Kentucky and Louisville – and won NCAA tournaments with the Wildcats in 1996 and the Cardinals in 2013 (though the last one was empty).

In his first year at MAAC school, Pitino led the Gaels to their fifth direct conference competition title after Cluess did so from 2016-19 before retiring due to health concerns. Iona, who won his conference 13 competition title, is considered the No. 15 seed according to ESPN ‘s Joe Lunardi and their up – tempo style could cause problems for some 2 seeds in the first round.

After firing Pitino, he spent two seasons coaching professionally in Greece, then was hired on Iona, where the virus has been under control for his first season.

Highlanders stopped three times this season for isolated coronavirus cases, including one stop that lasted 51 days – the longest in Division 1 – and another that lasted 17 days.

Pitino thought half of his team had contracted the virus this season, and in January said some of his players had shown symptoms.

Pitino himself was positive in January after receiving the first glimpse of the vaccine. He said he quarantined for 10 days in a flat on campus after a positive test that month.

Meanwhile, Pitino and his team lifted the roster with eight new players, including 6-foot-9 forward Nelly Junior Joseph, a Nigerian native who won the MAAC Rookie of the Year and went for 12 points and 11 rebounds in the game title.

Junior Joseph grew up in Benin City, Nigeria, attended school in Japan for a few years, and then returned home to join the African NBA Academy, an elite basketball training center in Senegal for the top opportunities from across Africa, before winning a scholarship to Iona. Along the way he took part in some high profile international basketball events, including Basketball Without Borders, Next Generation Show at the Final and G League Winter Show, where he made a good impression. on college and professional scouts.

When Pitino got the job he asked his Louisville vice-captain Gorgui Dieng if he knew of any good players in Africa, and Dieng Junior recommended Joseph, who promised Iona a month after Pitino took over the job. take.

Pitino said in October that the pandemic had helped its workers.

“If it wasn’t for COVID, we couldn’t have introduced the biggest recruiting class in my history as a basketball coach … because if everyone was allowed to visit different places , we would not get eight boys, one from Germany, one from Sweden, one from Rwanda, Nigeria, New York, North Carolina, Florida, ”he said in an interview with Zoom with Vin Parise.

“They had to make a decision. I think six of the eight did not know where Iona was, what county or state he was in. So COVID helped us get hired. So not only did we look at the half-filled glass, we immediately looked at it filled. ”

Pitino is now returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017 and Iona is once again representing the MAAC in the March Madness.