Rick Pitino addressed Iona’s offseason and non-conference schedule in Zoom call Tuesday, which also included push for MAAC to fortify its own standing. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)
Rick Pitino took to the (virtual) airwaves Tuesday, conducting a Zoom call with members of the Iona media to reference the Gaels’ incoming six-man recruiting class and non-conference schedule for the 2022-23 season in the wake of winning 25 games, a regular season Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship, and appearing in the National Invitation Tournament.
After Pitino gave a primer on each new addition, highlighting that he recruited freshmen more heavily this season because — in his own words — “I didn’t want to lose sight of building a program,” he laid out the non-league gauntlet for Iona, which includes a home game against Saint Louis, trips to Hofstra and New Mexico, a meeting with Seton Hall at Madison Square Garden whose date still needs to be finalized, and appearances at Mohegan Sun Arena and Barclays Center against yet-unnamed opponents. Upon taking questions from the media, a particular quote about realignment made the rounds on social media and was quickly consumed and, to an extent, misinterpreted. Highlighting the Atlantic 10 Conference, Pitino had this to say:
“If Richmond didn’t upset Davidson, they would have only had, out of 14 teams, one team in the NCAA this year. But I believe, with Loyola Chicago coming in, with Archie Miller going to Rhode Island and Frank Martin going to UMass, the Atlantic 10 is going to take off, because they just hired awesome coaches.”
“So we need to get into a multi-bid league. Can the MAAC develop into something like that? I don’t know, it depends on who they’re bringing in. I don’t know what’s happening with that.”
At first blush, with no context and not reading between the lines, it is easy to misconstrue that as Pitino perhaps positioning Iona for a move to the Atlantic 10, which has NOT — repeat, NOT — been discussed in any serious capacity. However, this latest round of Pitino being brutally honest with regard to his program’s standing reads more as a plea for the MAAC to be more like the A-10 in how it projects itself as a basketball conference. “We need to get into a multi-bid league” should be taken more as an inadvertent slip of the tongue and read as “we need to BECOME a multi-bid league,” especially with the following quote about MAAC expansion, which has been rumored to include Mount St. Mary’s from the Northeast Conference, but nothing etched in stone:
“What bothers me more than anything about the MAAC is that they don’t bring the coaches or athletic directors in on who they’re trying to expand with,” Pitino said, citing the meetings with university and college presidents in regard to prospective new members. “We have no clue to who they’re expanding with. They don’t bring any of us in on that.”
Pitino is many things, most notably a Hall of Fame coach and two-time national champion who will forget more basketball than the majority of us will ever learn. And at the end of the day, his remarks should be taken as a passionate defense for his conference to think forwardly as opposed to simply maintaining the status quo, rather than as someone looking to take the first boat out of the harbor.
ReplyDelete“What bothers me more than anything about the MAAC is that they don’t bring the coaches or athletic directors in on who they’re trying to expand with,” Pitino said, citing the meetings with university and college presidents in regard to prospective new members. “We have no clue to who they’re expanding with. They don’t bring any of us in on that.”
^^^ Pitino is spot on with this statement. There is little faith from the fans that Ensor will do the right things to elevate the league. Fresh off an Elite 8 appearance the league needs to be bold and not settle for NEC leftovers to ensure his job security as commish.