According to multiple reports, St. John’s has extended an offer to Rick Pitino to be the Red Storm’s next head coach.
Pitino met with higher ups at the school on Sunday and an offer followed.
Here are more details from CBS Sports:
Iona coach Rick Pitino met with St. John’s administrators, who extended an offer Sunday for Pitino to be the next coach of the Red Storm, sources told CBS Sports. Pitino is currently mulling the significant contract proposal.
The 70-year-old Pitino went 64-22 the past three seasons at Iona, twice taking the Gaels to the NCAA Tournament as well as winning the past two regular-season MAAC titles.
St. John’s is banking on the 70-year-old Pitino to accept its offer, which would return him to Madison Square Garden, a place he coached in the 1980s with the New York Knicks. St. John’s last won an NCAA Tournament game in 2000.
ESPN adds more, saying that Pitino laid out his vision for the St. John’s program during the Sunday meeting:
The meeting with St. John’s on Sunday served as a way for the sides to get to know each other more formally and the meeting was viewed as productive, sources told ESPN.
Pitino, 70, laid out his vision for program to St. John’s officials on Sunday, a source told ESPN. Pitino engaged with St. John’s officials about the school’s commitment, as sources said he would be taking the job with the intention to compete for Big East championships and the national title. That will require significant support both for the program and in the Name Image and Likeness space. And both sides chatted about what’s needed for the program going forward.
During the NCAA tournament in Albany, Pitino essentially acknowledged that he’d have the chance to be the coach at St. John’s. He even hinted in his press conference at the timeline that’s unfolded, as he told a story that he hadn’t been to the school since 1987 when Providence won a game there on a controversial call. Pitino joked that he told then PC star Billy Donovan to jump in the shower with his shoes on so Providence didn’t have to come back on the court to play the final second.
The New York Post reported over the weekend that billionaire alumnus Mike Repole is eager to pump money into NIL to help the program if Pitno is hired:
The billionaire alumnus is firmly behind the potential hire and ready to get involved, he told The Post in an exclusive interview.
With the advent of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL), his deep pockets would certainly benefit the Red Storm, who are involved in the NIL space with a collective, Storm Marketing.
“As a proud and passionate St. John’s alum, I’ve waited over 15 years for St. John’s to hire a Hall of Fame coach like Rick Pitino,” Repole, the Vitamin Water co-founder, business mogul and Queens native, said Saturday afternoon, as St. John’s continued its pursuit of Pitino, the Iona coach. “He’s the type of coach that the University has deserved since the day Louie Carnesecca retired.”
