Joan Pitino has been there since high school, when she was retrieving free throws under the baskets in the St. Dominic High School gymnasium, with a vague promise to go to the beach with her then-boyfriend. I was there. He decided it was over. Over the years, the two of them have always talked about how it turned out.
A few years ago, she said with a laugh, “I traveled a lot to Carvel instead.”
But this time, Joanne thought her husband had officially lost his mind. It’s not like she doesn’t notice the signs that fly around Rick every time it looks like he’s being targeted. That was part of the deal from the beginning, and Jim Boeheim famously interviewed him for an assistant gig at Syracuse on his wedding night.
It’s just that, after all the moves and all the stops, he has finally achieved a position that is about as comfortable as the job allows for its most ambitious practitioners. He was already a Hall of Famer. He worked for coaches he liked at Iona College, coached players he liked, and had a rabid fan base that would have signed him to coach for life in New Rochelle.
Capper: Their home is off the third green at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, just 6.8 miles from the Iona campus. It takes 11 minutes by car. If the weather is nice, you can also go by bicycle.
Pitino, 71, says with a laugh. He said, “The older he gets, the more he becomes attracted to things like the ease of commuting.”
Yes, that’s right. Last spring, the Rev. Brian Shanley, St. John’s president, came to Pitino to pitch him on expanding commuting, returning to Big East jobs, and trading Iona’s mid-sized royalty status for a shot at St. John’s. Then Joan asked Rick a simple question.
“Are you a fool?”
It’s been a few months now, and Joanne is enjoying every aspect of this journey just as much as Rick and a fully revitalized St. John’s fan base. The Johnnies are nearing the end of the week’s schedule, fresh off a big win against Villanova, and are scheduled to travel to Cincinnati to face Xavier on Wednesday, before top-ranked Connecticut State plays at the Garden on the 19th. I know what’s waiting for them. Saturday.
It’s sure to be the most anticipated St. John’s game at the Garden in years, and exactly the kind of day Shanley had in mind when he plucked Pitino away from the Gaels. It was the kind of moment that quadrupled Pitino (on a good day). his commute time.
“We’re still playing catch-up,” Pitino said. “When I took this job, I knew there was a lot to do, but I didn’t know exactly to what extent we would need to rebuild – on the court, off the court, infrastructure. There’s a lot of work to do. But this was a good start to the process.”
The Johnnies have already established themselves as legitimate NCAA championship contenders with records of 13-7 and 5-4 in league play. Their metrics are solid. As of Monday, they ranked 35th in the NET (4th in the Big East) and were 7-6 against Quad 1 and Quad 2 teams. More to the point, other than the trouble they had at Seton Hall two weeks ago, they’re playing their best basketball right now.
“Our message in every game right now is simple,” Pitino said. “Play this game like you want to go to the NCAA Tournament.”
Of course, Pitino has been there many times. If he takes Johnny, it will be his sixth different school, making him the only one to do so, with Lon Kruger and Tubby Smith being the only five to do so. become. But most of his players are still chasing that elusive goal. Danis Jenkins and Cruz Davis went to Iona with Pitino. Nahiem Alleyne and Zuby Ejiofor of the University of Kansas, Yukon; that’s it.
More than anything, that is Pitino’s current driving force.
“They all want to do what they can to leave a winner here,” Pitino said. “They’re desperate to prove to themselves that they can make it to the tournament, because most of them know how difficult it is. We’re a really good road team. We are beginning to see glimpses of this, and we hope that this will continue.”
There is also this. Pitino is one of thousands of kids in and around the city who grew up in an era when St. John’s was the gold standard for them, an era when you couldn’t watch your desired college team on television. Pitino watched many games at his Alumni Hall as a kid and admired Sonny Dove. He never played there, preferring to go to school.
But he’s there now. He returned to the Big East. He returned to the city. Preaching city games.
“There’s a lot of work to be done here,” he says. “So far, so good.”
