Rick Pitino instructs Iona during a timeout during Gaels’ battle with Saint Peter’s. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)
The three-letter acronym is almost ubiquitous in and around the Hynes Athletics Center. Be it in practice, the locker room, pregame warmups, or even in the crowd during a game, it can be seen in any given section of an arena where winning is a beverage as constantly imbibed as some of the more potent potables up the block at the Beechmont Tavern.
PHD.
Normally used to denote the highest possible degree in a particular field, this PHD is the process by which Rick Pitino is authoring his final chapters of an illustrious career, doing so by conferring a doctorate upon Iona College in the area of winning basketball programs.
Passionate. Hungry. Driven.
It is an axiom by which Pitino operates relentlessly, in even the most mundane tasks of life. And almost two years after arriving in New Rochelle, he has instilled the same credo in all who study under his learning tree, one that has bore 800 career wins, a pair of national championships, and countless professional testimonials over a tour of duty in the game that has lasted for parts of six decades, beginning when Jimmy Carter was President of the United States.
“I would say it’s been a process,” Tyson Jolly said of not only playing for Pitino, but learning the essence of his new head coach after transferring to Iona following stops at Baylor and SMU. “Being at other schools, you learn different techniques, different schemes, coaches coach different ways. Every day, you’re constantly learning and honestly, I feel like he just gives us the freedom to learn and make mistakes, and then he coaches us through the mistakes. He’s coaching to make us figure it out.”
“He was intense when I met him, and he’s just as intense now,” Elijah Joiner, Iona’s point guard who came to Pitino by way of Tulsa, added. “For us to be able to celebrate that with him after all the teams he’s coached in his career, he’s a legend, and we’re just glad to be a part of history.”
The history of which Joiner speaks added a new wrinkle less than a year ago, when Iona — in the throes of a 51-day pause after being sidelined by COVID-19 on multiple occasions last season — received a clean bill of health just in time for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament. Once the Gaels took the floor in Atlantic City, they left the rest of the MAAC in their wake again, winning four games in five days to claim yet another league championship, and with it, an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament that Pitino has attributed to his patented player development sessions and an ability to attract great talent based on his resume and his own gift that he continues to impart on anyone willing to put in the work to succeed at the highest level.
Tyson Jolly has used Rick Pitino’s guidance to fuel MAAC Player of the Year-caliber senior season at Iona. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)
“Just being in his presence and being able to come into the gym every day, even days when we don’t feel like working out or practicing,” Jolly said of what helps motivate him as the fifth-year senior is in contention for MAAC Player of the Year honors. “Just seeing his face makes you want to go even harder, for him and for yourself.”
“The key is you go after players you think have great upside,” Pitino revealed. “We try to recruit people that the reason they’re coming here is they want to get better, and that’s what we do. Tyson wanted to get better, that’s why he came here. Elijah wanted to get better, that’s why he came here. Quinn (Slazinski, a transfer from Louisville) wanted to get better, that’s why he came here. Nelly (Junior Joseph, last year’s MAAC Rookie of the Year) listened to Gorgui Dieng, that’s why he came here. Dylan (van Eyck, a fifth-year senior who is one of only two holdovers recruited by Pitino’s predecessor, Tim Cluess) is a starter on our basketball team, but he’s a finisher. He changes the game.”
At 18-3, and a perfect 10-0 in MAAC play, Iona has a target squarely on its back, one that has magnified and widened through the program’s reputation, coupled with a desire for opposing teams to claim victory over a Hall of Fame architect in Pitino. But the heightened expectations have only raised the stakes and stoked even the smallest coals in the fire, one that is being willfully ignited on every possession.
Elijah Joiner drives inside for layup against Saint Peter’s. The Tulsa transfer runs Rick Pitino’s offense from point guard spot. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)
“As a team, we look at pressure as a privilege,” Joiner opined. “When the pressure isn’t on you anymore, that means you’re not doing something good. We embrace the pressure every night being an undefeated team with teams wanting to beat us and most importantly, our coach, and we embody that. We really care for each other as teammates and as brothers. Eventually, if you have a team like that off the court, it’s going to translate on the court. That’s why when our backs are against the wall, we know that we’ve got everybody on the bench with us and all five guys out there working extremely hard to get us the win.”
The deep love and respect within the borders of the locker room actually developed overseas, as the Gaels traveled to Greece last summer for a five-game excursion against various professional teams, one of whom was the Panathinaikos outfit Pitino left to make his re-entry into the collegiate ranks in 2020. Iona may not have won each contest on paper, but the experience and intangibles gained along the way provided a greater reward and payoff than any win or loss ever could.
“I think it started in Greece when we played the national teams and actually competing,” Joiner said of when the Gaels found a rhythm. “Learning each other, figuring each other out and just seeing how hard we fought with each other and for each other during those times, and not even knowing each other. We just got here, (Pitino) was yelling and we didn’t know what he was yelling about, but we just bonded and gelled together. That’s when we had something special.”
That was also, as Jolly recalled, when the Iona players realized the celebrity stature their coach possessed.
“That’s when I knew Coach P was really Coach P,” he said with a laugh. “As soon as we got to Athens, he took us around and gave us a little tour. He was just dressed in street clothes, and these kids and parents coming from different stores and different shops were like, ‘Hey, Coach Pitino! Hey, Rick, come get a picture! Rick! Rick! Rick!’ It was cool to see how people embrace Coach, even way across the waters.”
Pitino’s reach and gravitas is well-documented, one of the many reasons why his name is mentioned for almost every high-major coaching vacancy that comes up. Time and again, he has dismissed thoughts of leaving Iona for places like Indiana, Maryland, or the same Louisville program that dismissed him acrimoniously in 2017, and has done so with a smile and a heartfelt gratitude for the situation he relishes with each passing day.
“I told the team that I’m glad that I got 800 here,” Pitino remarked after Iona defeated Saint Peter’s on January 30 to reach the aforementioned milestone. “But I want to get another 200 here. And God willing, if I don’t roll a seven anytime soon, hopefully it’ll happen. I’m real, real pleased coaching these guys, the school is a small school that you appreciate all the little things — you don’t have the bells and whistles like I had at Louisville or Kentucky — but none of that bothers me.”
“Coaching here, I think, is a great honor. It’s just an easy lifestyle to coach kids who really care, they’re not worried about, ‘let’s get an NIL for $150,000,’ nobody worries about that. You just worry about playing ball and getting better, so I’m happy I’m here. It’s one of the best jobs I’ve had, and at 69, the most important thing is my guys came here to play for me. So I don’t pay attention to any of that.”
What he — and by extension, his players — do pay attention to is the present moment. And beginning Friday against Canisius, Iona embarks on the second half of conference play looking to join La Salle as the only schools in MAAC history to complete the regular season undefeated. The Explorers did it twice, in 1987-88 and 1989-90 under the legendary Speedy Morris, and the Gaels are hoping to be the third entry in the history books. But win or lose, Pitino has already given his players and his program reason to believe, reason to dream big, and reassurance that such visions of grandeur will not be fleeting.
“I think we can do great things here because we can attract great players here,” he said. “I always tell my son (Richard) when you're going after a job: If you can recruit great players, it’s a great job. And we can recruit great players here.”
“My window is closing, so I want to get the most out of every single day in player development, I want to get the most out of every single game. I know when my time will be up, but fortunately for me, I’m not close to that.”
Iona players celebrate one of Gaels’ 18 wins to date this season. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)
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