Pitino back in tourney with MAAC champ Iona
Rick Pitino’s vagabond coaching career bathed in scandal and success has brought him back to the NCAA Tournament. Ninth-seeded Iona beat No. 7 seed Fairfield 60-51 to win the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament on Saturday and become the fifth school Pitino has led to the NCAAs.
“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.
Pitino was hired at Iona (12-5) last March largely to rehabilitate his image after an ignominious end at Louisville. He had a trying first season navigating through the pandemic. He contracted the coronavirus, and the Gaels were forced to stop four times because of virus issues — including a 51-day hiatus, the longest in the country.
The 68-year-old Pitino already was 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, who was fired by Louisville in 2017 for a pay-for-play scandal and had been coaching in Greece, joined Lon Kruger and Tubby Smith as the only coaches to take five programs to the NCAA Tournament.
No. 8 seed Georgetown wins Big East title
Georgetown is going back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015 after Patrick Ewing’s eighth-seeded team completed a surprising run to the Big East championship with a stunning 73-48 rout of No. 17 Creighton, which scored its fewest points of the season and shot 29% from the field.
The Hoyas (13-12) won their record eighth Big East Tournament title and first since 2007. They became the lowest-seeded team to win the conference tournament since Connecticut did it as a No. 9 seed in 2011. Those Huskies went on to win the national title.
Ewing became the first person in Big East history to be the most outstanding player on a Big East Tournament champion and coach a team to a Big East Tournament title. And he did it all in the building in which his Knicks uniform No. 33 is retired, Madison Square Garden.
The Hoyas likely knocked another team off the NCAA Tournament bubble to give the Big East four representatives along with Creighton, Villanova and UConn.
Report: Duke could play if selected
Duke could play in the NCAA Tournament if selected as an at-large team or a COVID-replacement team, ESPN reported. The Blue Devils (13-11) withdrew from the ACC Tournament on Thursday after a positive COVID-19 test within the program. At the time, athletic director Kevin White said the withdrawal “will end our 2020-21 season,” ending Duke’s streak of 24 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.