ALBANY, N.Y. (WDRB) — A stack of boxed sandwiches sat untouched in the corner of the dressing room of the Iona men’s basketball team, next to a plate of jumbo-sized chocolate chip cookies.
Student managers scooped up clipped ankle tape in front a string of lockers. Players sat slumped in chairs. No music played.
Berrick JeanLouis, one of Iona’s starting guards, said that he had been crying and did not hear most of the post-game message from Rick Pitino, Iona’s coach.
The expiration date on the Gaels’ 2022-23 season was officially reached. Credit Connecticut. All week Pitino insisted the Huskies were under-seeded as a No. 4 in the West Regional of the NCAA Tournament.
Late Friday afternoon at MVP Arena, UConn proved it, rallying from a 39-37 halftime deficit to rout Pitino’s undersized and undermanned team, 87-63.
“They were just the better basketball team,” Pitino said. “They’ve got all the metrics to win a national championship.”
Ball game over.
Season over.
Pitino Iona Era over?
NEW: St. John's intends to finalize a deal with Rick Pitino to hire the Hall of Famer as its next head coach, sources tell FOX Sports. My story: https://t.co/9tILHTkAnK
— John Fanta (@John_Fanta) March 18, 2023
Less than an hour after Pitino finished his post-game media obligations, John Fanta of Fox Sports, tweeted that St. John’s planned to finalize a deal with Pitino. That was not what Pitino said when he was asked about it in the first question he answered after the game.
“I don’t really have an answer to it to be honest with you,” Pitino said. “I have no idea if it is or it isn’t (his last game at Iona) because I’ve focused everything on this game.”
Expect a storm of Tweets. Steve Masiello, the former Kentucky player and Pitino assistant coach at Louisville, said Pitino had not even decided when his team would return to its campus in suburban New York City, never mind where he would pick up a whistle at the beginning of next season.
“I don’t know if he is going to leave or if he is going to stay but I would love for him to stay,” said Nelly Junior Joseph, the Gaels’ Nigerian-born center.
“I don’t listen to (the strong rumors about Pitino leaving for a Big East job),” said JeanLouis. “I don’t pay no attention to that. We were just focused on winning the game. That was just it.”
Some people, like Fanta, are convinced Pitino will be named the next coach at St. John’s by early next week. Others tap the brakes on that and say they’re not willing to make a prediction on his next stop until Ed Cooley decides if he will stay at Providence or depart for Georgetown.
If something truly outlandish happens on the coaching carousel, Pitino and his Hall of Fame credentials, might be in play for something more glamorous than those two mid-level Big East programs.
Despite the baggage from the University of Louisville on his resume. Despite Pitino being 70 and a half years old.
They believe that because wherever Pitino goes he wins — at least in the college game. Won at Boston University. Won at Providence. Won big at Kentucky. Won big at Louisville. Won at Iona.
Let the record show that if Pitino does leave for St. John’s and take the Red Storm to the NCAA Tournament, he will become the first coach to guide six programs into the tournament.
His work at Iona showed that he can still maneuver the chessboard as skillfully as he did it with the Unforgettable at Kentucky or with Peyton Siva, Russ Smith and Luke Hancock at Louisville. There has been no slippage.
Against UConn, Iona came out and made its first five field goal attempts. The Gaels made 6 of 11 shots from distance and led for the final 2:49 of the first half.
In the locker room, Pitino told his players that he loved the way they played but that UConn would attack with extra-strength adrenaline in the second half.
He was not wrong.
Jordan Hawkins made a 4-point play for the Huskies 17 seconds into the second half. UConn outscored Iona 11-2 and never trailed.
“We didn’t come out with fire and we didn’t match their energy at all,” JeanLouis said.
UConn has the kind of size, depth and athleticism that can carry a program to the Final Four. Pitino said that the primary thing his team lacked was depth, which showed in the Gaels being outscored 26-13 off the bench.
Pitino was reminded of something that he learned 50 years ago. To compete at the top level of this game, you have to have players. Full-sized players. A fleet of them. Guys who have NBA scouts lining up to get inside your arena to watch them play.
UConn has those guys. Iona does not have those guys — and likely never will.
Does Pitino want to start over — again — at a place that can attract the kind of talent a program needs to win over three weekends of this tournament?
“Well, first of all, I was totally exonerated because I was innocent of (anything that happened at Louisville) — I got two Level 2 violations of not being able to monitor.
“I got letters from every player I’ve ever coached, every assistant coach that’s ever coached (for him) to say what a disciplinarian I am.
“So I had to wait five years for them to basically stall my career out to finally get exonerated. It was exonerated by an impartial committee made up of legal people — legal people, not ADs and not people they hand pick.
“So for five years they put me in the outhouse because they couldn’t get their act together.
“So it’s just the breaks of the game. You can’t look back. The past, it’s always cherished. You learn from it, you cherish the past. I’ve been to seven Final Four and two championships and I cherish that.”
Should be a stormy 2023-24 season.
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