OT: Rick Pitino New Head Coach at St. John's

Submitted by rob f on March 20th, 2023 at 2:58 PM

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/35905088/sources-rick-pitino-agrees-6-year-deal-st-johns

It's a 6-year contract with the 70 year old Pitino.  A huge gamble for St John's, IMO, to take a chance on hiring a coach with that much baggage and at that age, but then again, obviously nothing is sacred anymore in the pursuit of wins. 

Grampy

March 20th, 2023 at 3:38 PM ^

Not many of History's greatest dictators have passed out free hookers and blow to their oppressed masses, so you have to give credit to Tricky Ricky for innovation.

Edit: I just noticed robf was calling HP a ruthless dictator, not Rick Pitino.  Well, that's just perfect...

chatster

March 20th, 2023 at 4:08 PM ^

FUN FACTS:

Providence was NOT "where it all began" in Rick Pitino's head-coaching career. Before coaching at Providence for just two seasons, Rick Pitino spent five seasons coaching the men's basketball team at NCAA hockey school Boston University where he was 91-51 and took the 1982-83 team to a regular-season championship, a conference-tournament championship and an NCAA Tournament.

One of the players on Pitino's 1982-83 Boston University team was Brett Brown, former head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers.

NittanyFan

March 20th, 2023 at 6:24 PM ^

To be truly technical --- Pitino's first 6 games as Head Coach were at Hawaii (!!!).  He was an interim coach for 6 games in 1975-76.  I never knew that until looking at his Wiki page.  

We also have this from his time at Hawaii: Pitino was implicated in 8 of the 64 infractions (in a 1977 NCAA report) that led Hawaii to be placed on probation. The violations involving Pitino included providing round-trip air fare for a player between New York and Honolulu, arranging for student-athletes to receive used cars for season tickets, and handing out coupons to players for free food at McDonald's.

He started early!

lilpenny1316

March 20th, 2023 at 3:19 PM ^

If Hugh Freeze, Chris Beard and others can come back, why not him? Sports is not and has never been a bastion of morality. If anything, it reflects the lack of morality in at least the sporting and advertising world. Sorry for the dark take, but the only way those guys don't get hired is if the culture that promotes these sports say enough is enough.

JonnyHintz

March 20th, 2023 at 3:56 PM ^

Idk, the Roman Catholic Church hasn’t exactly been a bastion of morality itself either. Why should their universities treat sports any differently? I mean Brian Kelly essentially killed someone with no consequences. 
 

Regardless of where you fall on the religious spectrum, I don’t know how you can view the Roman Catholic Church (as an entity) as a beacon of morality. They’ve been far from that for virtually their entire existence. 

los barcos

March 20th, 2023 at 3:51 PM ^

It's a result oriented business - if Alabama wins a title, do you think they're going to be talking about this brandon miller thing five years from now? 

I don't get the hate.  In fact, I've grown to appreciate the characters that make up college ball - will make it fun to root for or against St. Johns in the coming years.  

Just keep him the hell away from my team.

SysMark

March 20th, 2023 at 3:26 PM ^

I don't like Pitino but don't really see this as much of a gamble by St. John's.  He'll get them back to competitive within two years.  They don't have any downside at this point.

He wants to be a big deal in NY

 

Cam

March 20th, 2023 at 3:32 PM ^

A university named after John the Baptist hires a man who was terminated for involvement in prostitution and bribery scandals. Classic religion.