Revitalized Rick Pitino embraces return to coaching, grateful for challenge of retooling Iona

 

As Rick Pitino prepares for return to coaching, the Hall of Famer is simply appreciative of chance to go back to his roots as Tim Cluess’ successor at Iona. (Photo by the Indianapolis Star)

When Iona athletic director Matt Glovaski made the decision to hire Rick Pitino after Tim Cluess was forced to step down in March due to health issues that precluded him from coaching last season, several questions immediately arose, two in particular reverberating throughout the college basketball.

Why Iona? And why now?

The answer, straight from the mouth of a Naismith Hall of Fame inductee, the only coach in NCAA history to win a national championship at two different schools? Love of the game, and a chance to write his own coda to a career that will always be mentioned in the same breath with names such as Krzyzewski, Knight, Boeheim, Smith, Calhoun and Williams, among others.

“I’m probably more excited today than any period in my life,” Pitino reiterated as he writes another chapter in an already illustrious basketball legacy. “It’s a totally different experience, but it’s back home. It’s where I grew up. I spent a lot of time in Westchester when I was the New York Knicks’ coach — I lived in Armonk and Bedford — and I’m probably more pumped up today than any time in the past because the one thing about Iona College is it’s a small, charming little campus. Every single coach that has coached here has had two things that really stick out, going back to Jim Valvano: Every coach has had great success, and every coach has moved on to greener pastures, so to speak.”

“I’m working in reverse. I’m ending my career at a place that, for me, is all about teaching. It’s all about being part of an academic community, and the people I’ve met are so dedicated and loyal to Iona College that it’s been a unique experience for me, and I’m very proud to be their head coach.”

In fact, had it not been for a fortuitous meeting shortly before COVID-19 stopped the world in its tracks, Pitino may not have even had the chance to make his long-awaited and ceremonious comeback.

“I was in Greece coaching professional basketball and I met someone on the plane back there that he had to spend six months there,” Pitino said. “He couldn’t get out, I got out 24 hours ahead of him catching a flight through London. If I didn’t catch it, I would have been stuck there and probably wouldn’t have been the Iona coach. So I got lucky. The president and the athletic director flew over to Madrid, Spain to meet with me, I was named the coach and I got out just in time before the pandemic got into full swing.”

Pitino has already turned his roster over in short order, recruiting a dozen new players to New Rochelle over the past eight months to pair with returning seniors Asante Gist, Isaiah Ross and Dylan van Eyck in an entirely different system from what the Gaels have customarily played in recent years. While the learning process has been admittedly difficult, it has not deterred the progress or the sheer enjoyment of Pitino teaching again.

“They’ve got a lot to learn,” he admitted. “I have one young man who came in at seven feet from Rwanda, Osborn Shema, who came in at 175 pounds at seven feet tall. We hope to get him up to 210, but he’s going to be a special basketball player. He’s better than Gorgui Dieng — who signed a $60 million contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves and won a national championship for me — at the same stage. He’s more gifted offensively. I hope he’s half as good as Gorgui Dieng when he left me, but he’s very, very skilled. He runs well, he jumps well, he blocks shots, he shoots it.”

“The first year’s always the most difficult, but always a lot of fun as well. We’re struggling right now, but every first year is always difficult because you’re teaching a totally new system. We’re learning the offenses and defenses, the Euroleague sets we’re running, but the good thing is I have talent, and one person who’s really getting it offensively and defensively is Dylan van Eyck. He understands the offensive system very well, I think he’s used to that Euroleague ball movement and player movement. But once we get the defenses down, with our size and talent, I think we can be a competitive basketball team.”

With renewed success at Iona will come the inevitable speculation — already prevalent in some circles — over how soon Pitino will leave for a higher-profile opportunity. Having just turned 68 in September, he is having none of that, recognizing both his own imminent coaching mortality and the simple appeal of a program that allows him to bring his career full circle and ultimately retire with no regrets in a place that has given him the rare chance to go back to his roots and dictate his own fate.

“For me, it’s a way to end my career,” Pitino reaffirmed. It’s the way I want it to end. God willing, I have about seven or eight years left in coaching, I’m still as passionate as ever and there’s no finer place to work than Iona College, so I’m really pumped up about it.”

“I’m hoping to put my stamp on a successful program. There’s no finer coach in the game than the one I’m taking the place of in Tim Cluess. He was outstanding and he did everything the hard way. Every coach that has coached at Iona has had great success, and I hope I’m as lucky as them.”