The final three many years have turned the St. John’s males’s basketball program from probably the most sacred manufacturers in collegiate sports activities to an detached sigh. The Red Storm attempt to label themselves as New York’s school basketball group — the one non-low-major program inside America’s most populous city space. Purists wouldn’t need Manhattan to undertake the Queens college, however any pathetic try from Syracuse (which is 4 hours from Madison Square Garden) or Rutgers (which could as effectively be 4 hours away with having to cross the Hudson River to get to the swamps of New Jersey) to attract in new followers by calling itself the “true team” of the Empire State will fall quick. It’s nonetheless and can all the time be St. John’s mantle and the Red Storm are soiling their historical past in an try to resurrect the dormant program.
Both Rick Pitino and St. John’s public flirtation has led the previous Iona coach to announce his transfer from the suburbs to New York City on a 6-year deal. The Red Storm didn’t have a secondary candidate, and Pitino had no downside talking to the press about St. John’s whereas teaching the Gaels within the NCAA Tournament. Imagine what he did behind closed doorways to get again to a related convention, the place he hasn’t been since being fired with trigger from Louisville in 2017. This couple eloping to offer what the opposite wants is precisely the seedy underbelly of faculty basketball exhibiting itself. The worst half is, I’m undecided if the Red Storm and Pitino care, or have a degree of self-awareness so low that these actions are deemed by each events to be honorable.
Pitino’s historical past of scandals
Pitino’s first time below the ire of the NCAA for wrongdoing was in 1977, three years earlier than Ronald Reagan was elected President and when Rocky gained finest image. Seven Presidents and eight movies within the Rocky movie franchise later, controversy has surrounded the 70-year-old coach at almost each step of his profession. At Hawaii, Pitino was implicated in eight infractions that led the Rainbow Warriors to be positioned on probation. Allegations included offering airfare for student-athletes and arranging for his gamers to have the usage of automobiles throughout their time with this system. (Pitino denied any wrongdoing.)
He took over at Kentucky for Eddie Sutton when the Wildcats had been below NCAA probation and one way or the other returned Rupp Arena into one of many sport’s most intimidating dwelling courtroom atmospheres. After a fast journey to the NBA, Pitino returned to the faculty ranks to take over at Louisville. After a decade of easy crusing with the Cardinals, Pitino helped them win a nationwide championship in 2013. Well, a stripped nationwide championship. Due to an escort intercourse scandal involving recruits from 2010-14, Louisville’s championship and 2012 Final Four look had been each vacated by the NCAA. The Cardinals additionally self-imposed a postseason ban for the 2015-16 season due to the investigation into this system paying for intercourse for potential gamers. And that’s removed from the top of Pitino’s troubles on the college.
In Sept. 2017, federal prosecutors introduced an investigation into the college for an alleged “pay for play” recruiting scandal. The allegations concerned an Adidas govt conspiring to pay the household of a high recruit to play for Pitino after which signify Adidas after turning professional. While the legal criticism doesn’t particularly identify the participant concerned within the scandal, Brian Bowen, who dedicated to Louisville in June 2017, has been recognized by a federal decide because the recruit focused. Pitino was positioned on administrative depart and ultimately fired, whereas Bowen now performs for the Iowa Wolves within the NBA G League. (After a lawsuit, Pitino’s termination was modified to a resignation.)
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There was additionally an affair with one among his staffer’s wives, Pitino paying for her abortion, after which his makes an attempt to show himself right into a sufferer by claiming he was being extorted. He admitted to the affair after assembly at an Italian restaurant however denied raping Karen Cunagin, who later married one among his assistants. Pitino averted the ax in that 2003 scenario, with Cunagin being discovered responsible of extortion and mendacity to federal brokers in Aug. 2010. Pitino later mentioned he used “extremely poor judgment” and that he “paid the price” for it in an interview with ESPN. The transient historical past lesson ought to be a reminder as to who the person St. John’s has solely centered on to steer it again to glory actually is. Winning is the one factor that’s essential, not having a standup coach to go alongside any of these wins, which could get vacated quickly!
The NCAA spared Pitino of any punishment when the findings of its investigation into Louisville had been introduced final November. Pitino brazenly talked about it when flirting with the Red Storm after Iona’s loss to UConn within the 2023 NCAA Tournament. “I had to wait five years for them to basically stall my career out to finally get exonerated,” Pitino mentioned Saturday. “I was exonerated by an impartial committee made up of legal people, legal people, not ADs and not people … they handpick. So for five years, they put me in the outhouse because they couldn’t get their stuff 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 Fours, two championships, and I cherish that. I also learn from the mistakes that were made.”
St. John’s desperately wants a comeback
The rap sheet for St. John’s isn’t almost as unhealthy, with the foremost offenses being the drooling over Pitino and sucking for lengthy parts of the final 30 years. Ever since Lou Carnesecca’s retirement in 1992, the Red Storm have been a shell of their former selves. Brian Mahoney led St. John’s to the second spherical of the event the subsequent season. Since 1994, the Red Storm have made seven NCAA Tournament appearances, with solely three coming over the past 20 years. Mike Jarvis led St. John’s to the Elite Eight in 1999 and it hasn’t been past the second spherical since.
Let’s not fake this hardwood marriage is a mix of utilizing each other. Pitino’s itch to get again to the highest ranges of faculty basketball is scratched by a program that wants an completed coach, irrespective of how tarnished his legacy is. The sweetheart rent of Chris Mullin didn’t work out and after the failed tenure of Mike Anderson, who plans to file a lawsuit towards the college after he was fired for trigger, promoting out to convey Pitino into the fold within the age of identify, picture, and likeness and the ever-evolving switch is a large danger.
Pitino possible can be round for a enjoyable time, not a very long time, as he enters his eighth decade on this planet. It’s time to place up or shut up for Pitino, who will both plunge the Red Storm additional into basketball purgatory or assist them regain some semblance of respectability and relevancy. Regaining public belief within the basketball business ought to be a private aim for Pitino too.