Asante Gist’s long road leads back to NCAA Tournament after taking new route to get there

 

Asante Gist, one of Iona’s elder statesmen, has Gaels back in NCAA Tournament. (Photo by Iona College Athletics)

Rick Pitino’s first encounter with his current starting point guard took place far beyond the walls of the Hynes Athletics Center.

It came in 2016, eight days before Christmas, in the bowels of the KFC Yum! Center. Pitino, midway through what would turn out to be his final season at the helm in Louisville, had just finished coaching his Cardinals to a 31-point win over Eastern Kentucky, whose own head coach — Dan McHale, a product of the rich Pitino coaching tree — had recruited a combo guard from New Jersey who had led Bob Hurley’s prestigious St. Anthony program to a Tournament of Champions crown. His name? Asante Gist.

Gist, a freshman starter for the Colonels that night, scored 12 points on 5-of-15 shooting in the losing effort, and added three assists for good measure. After the final buzzer, Pitino took it upon himself to offer words of encouragement for the burgeoning young talent.

“I went in the locker room and I spoke to the whole team,” he recalled when addressing Gist and his teammates. “And I told him, ‘Son, you’ve got to make people better.’ That’s the key to a 5’10” guard. It isn’t just scoring, and he had a good year.”

“I was young when he came and spoke to me at Eastern Kentucky,” Gist echoed. “I didn’t really understand it back then, but now I understand it more being around him. I definitely understand it.”

Four years later, fate intervened as the two crossed paths again. Pitino, eager to get back in the college game after coaching in Greece, had been hired last March at Iona following the unexpected resignation of Tim Cluess due to health issues. Among the returning talent he inherited was Gist, who had matured into a third guard behind Rickey McGill and E.J. Crawford on the Gaels’ last NCAA Tournament team, which led North Carolina at halftime and challenged the Tar Heels deep into the second half. However, Gist would take on a different role, and do so while battling injuries and COVID-19.

“This was the first time I was going to play him at the true point,” Pitino revealed. “And I said, ‘look, you’ve got a lot to learn.’ But he has. He’s a willing learner. He wanted to play the point, learn how to run a pick-and-roll, learn how to set people up. And outside of his injuries, he’s done a fabulous job with that.”

On top of his already established scoring and shooting prowess, Gist complemented his numbers by averaging four assists per game, good enough for third-best in the MAAC. More than that, though, he gained an education about the finer points of his position to go with a renewed sense of self-value from his mentor’s convictions.

“He’s been around the game for 40 years,” Gist said of Pitino. “He’s just been showing me all the different things I’ve got to do to be a better point guard, and mainly, the biggest thing is just believing in me. Building that confidence in me — and I always had confidence in myself, of course — but when you have a coach that believes in you like he believed in me, it’s just something special. I feel as though that’s what every player needs, somebody to build that confidence in them. He did.”