Rick Pitino has accepted the job of becoming the next coach at St. John’s, with the Hall of Fame coach poised for a return to big college basketball, sources told CBS Sports. Ten years after Louisville’s last season in the basketball-mad conference and 37 years after leaving Providence, Pitino is returning to the Great East. The Iona coach met with St John’s leadership on Sunday and agreed terms on becoming the Red Storm’s next coach on Monday afternoon, sources said.
An official announcement is expected shortly; St. John’s is planning a press conference for Madison Square Garden for Tuesday noon ET, sources added. Pitino’s six-year deal is close to $20 million, a source said.
The 70-year-old Pitino went 64-22 in the last three seasons at Iona, twice led the Gaels to the NCAA tournament and won the MAAC regular-season title in the last two seasons.
“From the bottom of my heart, thank you @SeamusCarey13, President of Iona. Thank you @mglovs23, the AD and all the people who touched our lives.” Pitino tweeted Monday.
“Follow up, I’m not sad it ended,” Pitino added. “I’m so thankful it happened. To my players, the last three years. All I can say is that you know how much I love you.”
In February, Pitino told CBS Sports, “If I wanted to leave, it would be a job that I thought could lead to a Final Four. It would be a great place to live but I don’t see it happening. I don’t see it happening. I am really connected to these children.
After that interview, Iona sauntered through the rest of the regular season, winning the MAAC regular-season and postseason titles.
“The only thing I don’t like about the whole situation is that I hate being in a league with an offer,” Pitino said in February.
The Big East, which still has three teams playing in the NCAA tournament, was ranked the third-best conference in the country this season, according to KenPom.com. The addition of Pitino just made the league bigger and better.
Rev. Brian Shanley, President of St. John’s, made sure he provided a financial package (including an assistant’s salary pool) good enough to woo Pitino away from the school, which took him to college after more than three years in exile -Basketball brought back. Pitino was acquitted of all guilt in Louisville’s IRP case last November relating to fraud and bribery in college basketball recruitment, a saga stretching back to 2017 when the FBI conducted oft-criticized investigations into shady recruiting practices. Pitino was fired in 2017 over the investigation and series of scandals under his Louisville oversight.
“I was completely exonerated because I was innocent,” Pitino said Friday after Iona’s loss to Connecticut in the NCAA tournament. “For five years they put me in the annex because they (the NCAA) couldn’t get their stuff together.”
As Georgetown pursued Ed Cooley and eventually landed, the Hoyas were eliminated from Pitino’s equation while Cooley’s situation in Providence remained a mystery until late Monday morning. That allowed St. John’s to successfully make their pitch in the final few days and apply pressure to secure Pitino – someone considered one of the smartest tacticians in college hoops history. The Johnnies need him; The program last won an NCAA tournament game in 2000, the same year that it reached the semifinals of the Big East tournament.
Pitino’s unofficial career record in college basketball is 834-293 (.740), but 123 wins have been vacated from his Louisville days. According to the NCAA, Pitino is 711-290 (.710). He has coached Providence, Kentucky and Louisville to the Final Four and is the only basketball coach to ever win a national championship at two programs (UK and U of L).
St. John’s will be the fifth school to have Pitino’s implemented a program, joining Boston University, Providence, Kentucky and Louisville. It will be his 10th stint overall as head coach; Pitino also previously coached the New York Knicks, Boston Celtics, Panathinaikos (Greece), and the Puerto Rico and Greece national teams.