HE’S STILL DANCING
Pitino back in the NCAA Tournament with MAAC champs Iona
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Rick Pitino ended an Iona team photo, a championship trophy as the centerpiece, by pointing toward a ladder and telling the Gaels to clip the nets.
He knows the way.
From coaching perennial powers to exile to the New York suburbs, Pitino has navigated a vagabond career bathed in scandal and success the only way he can: by winning.
Asante Gist scored 18 points and Pitino took his record-tying fifth school to the NCAA Tournament with Iona’s 60-51 victory over Fairfield on Saturday in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament championship.
Next stop, the all-Indiana NCAA Tournament.
“I told them I was packing eight suits,” Pitino said. “We have a lot of dirty laundry, and we’re heading to Indianapolis.”
The 68-year-old Pitino was already the first coach to win national titles at two schools (Kentucky, Louisville) and the first to take three schools (Providence) to the Final Four. He led Boston University to the tournament in 1983.
Pitino was hired at Iona (12-5) last March to — yes, to keep the Gaels among the perennial favorites to come out of the MAAC in March — but in large part to rehabilitate his image after an ignominious end at Louisville.
Pitino had a trying first season trying to orchestrate a tourney bid through a pandemic. He contracted coronavirus and the Gaels were forced to stop four times this season because of virus issues — including a 51-day hiatus that sidelined them longer than any team in the country.
Led by the backcourt of Gist and Isaiah Ross, the ninth-seeded Gaels used a 10-0 run to close the first half at Boardwalk Hall. Ross made the postgame walk through the empty seats and kissed his 10-month-old daughter, Averie.
Pitino, his mask on his chin all game, shuffled side-to-side as if in a perpetual defensive drill, yelled instruction, harangued the officials and somehow in the roll of papers he gripped all game had the formula that showed why in stops ranging from Kentucky to New Rochelle, New York, he landed in the Hall of Fame. Well-traveled — with baggage.
“We’ve been the No. 1 of No. 1 overall seeds, but with the treatment by the NCAA of me, we might get an 18 seed,” Pitino said.
Caleb Green buried a 3 for the Stags (10-17) that brought them to 20-18 in the first half before they faded over the final four minutes. Gist hit consecutive jumpers to kickstart the run and send the Gaels into the half with a 30-18 lead.
The championship game sprinkled mostly family and friends inside the boardwalk venue to liven the atmosphere and there was a nice round of applause when Gist needed help to the bench with an apparent knee injury. With Gist out, Fairfield’s Jake Wojcik made a 3 in the second half that made it a four-point game. Gist’s absence was short-lived and he hit a 3 in his return to send the Gaels on their way to their fifth straight NCAA Tournament.