Rick Pitino, one of the greatest and most villainous characters in college basketball, made his return to the United States at Iona in 2020. The timing of his hire was rather unique or — in a word that most of us wish to never hear again — unprecedented.
Iona University is located in New Rochelle, New York. On March 12, 2020, it was located less than one mile away from the epicenter of a significant COVID outbreak that forced then-governor Andrew Cuomo to mandate a containment zone. The National Guard was deployed to the 80,000-person city.
Two days later, Pitino was hired by the Gaels. He had not coached college basketball since being fired at Louisville in 2017 amid a significant recruiting scandal. There was a cloud of negativity that followed him, but the hire was not met with any commotion. Perhaps the ongoing world events played a role.
A person familiar with the situation, who spoke to ESPN on the condition of anonymity, thinks so.
With all the past scandals, if COVID’s not going on, is there a protest, do people rebel, does he get the job? … He was able to start signing all these kids … and they couldn’t [go to New Rochelle] to see how small the gym is.
Iona took the bullets, then this guy coached a couple of years and nobody’s bringing up the Louisville scandals. And maybe we’re just distracted as a society. We’re wearing masks.
— Anonymous source to ESPN
It is a fair point. We, as a people, were not worried about Pitino during that stage of life. Certainly not those in New Rochelle!
Rick Pitino’s first year back was unusual.
Iona played only 18 games during the 2020/21 college basketball season. Players missed games due to illness. Games were canceled due to locker room outbreaks.
Despite all of the challenges, Rick Pitino led the Gaels to a MAAC tournament championship and earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. They went 12-6.
Former Iona guard Berrick JeanLouis, who committed to Pitino without knowing anything about the school or its high school-sized gym, was (and is) extremely gratified by the decision. However, he and his teammates experienced a season unlike any other.
In addition to the quarantines and cancellations, Pitino worked them hard. Even when there weren’t enough active players to field a normal practice, he would run 3-on-3 drills for hours.
The players actually wished that they would test positive so that they could get a break from the grind!
It was terrible. Sometimes we would wish we would’ve gotten COVID again. Please test positive. He’s killing us.
— Berrick JeanLouis, via ESPN
In the end, Pitino’s strenuous practices paid off. His team was ultimately grateful for the hard work.
[The practices were] devastating, but they helped.
— Berrick JeanLouis, via ESPN
Pitino has done this whole coaching thing a time or two. He has two* national championships.
Working his players hard wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. However, as a result of the ongoing pandemic, the intensity increased by a large margin because of a lack of depth.
His players didn’t want to be there, until the results proved Pitino’s madness to be a method!