Rick Pitino back in NCAA Tournament after guiding Iona to MAAC title
Rick Pitino will be making his return to the NCAA Tournament.
The former University of Kentucky and University of Louisville basketball coach, who led both programs to national title-game victories, guided Iona to a 60-51 win against Fairfield in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament championship game on Saturday in Atlantic City, N.J.
Asante Gist, a senior who started his college career at Eastern Kentucky, paced ninth-seeded Iona (12-5) with 18 points. He also had four rebounds and was 6-for-6 at the free-throw line against the seventh-seeded Stags (10-17). Nelly Junior Joseph added 12 points, 11 boards and three blocked shots for the Gaels.
The 68-year-old Pitino previously won NCAA championships with UK in 1996 and with the Cardinals in 2013, but that title had to be vacated after NCAA investigations into the U of L program as part of a federal corruption case. He is the third coach to take five teams (also Providence and Boston University) to the NCAA Tournament, joining Lon Kruger and Tubby Smith.
“Louisville is a great program. Unfortunately, some people in life did some things wrong and a lot of innocent people have suffered,” Pitino said. “Not only me, but a lot of innocent people that are behind the program and that’s disappointing. But I’m the leader of this ship. I said it over and over. I deserved to be fired because if somebody under me did the wrong things, I deserve it.”
Pitino’s path back to the NCAA Tournament hasn’t been easy. The Gaels were forced to stop their season four times because of coronavirus issues — including one 51-day hiatus that sidelined them longer than any team in the country.
“We played our fourth game, coming out of four COVIDs,” Pitino said. “And it’s so exciting to see my players this happy.”
Pitino himself couldn’t escape COVID, contracting the virus after he had received his first vaccination shot. He quarantined in a small apartment on campus rather than risk getting his wife sick, and by the time Iona finally played a game on Feb. 12, it came after a 51-day break following its last game on Dec. 23.
Pitino took over a program used to playing in March. Iona had completed a good run under Tim Cluess, who made six NCAA Tournament appearances and won five MAAC Tournament titles in nine seasons before stepping down for health reasons, when it hired Pitino.
Pitino said Saturday that he intends to finish his career at Iona, calling it “a great way to end a very long career.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 13, 2021 at 6:06 PM.
