St. John’s Hires Hall of Fame Coach

Written by: Jack Sargente

Coming into the 2022-23 St. John’s men’s basketball season, head coach, Mike Anderson, faced a precarious situation. If he did not bring his team to the NCAA Tournament, his job would be in jeopardy. Sure enough, by the beginning of March, the Red Storm severely disappointed and their season eventually ended with a loss to Marquette in the Big East Tournament. The following day, Mike Anderson was fired. While St. John’s was beginning the search for a head coach, they had a Hall of Famer right in their backyard.

The coaching search was very deliberate from the beginning as St. John’s brass had their eyes set on Iona’s head coach, Rick Pitino. The 70-year-old Pitino is a legendary coach who has won NCAA National Championships at Louisville and Kentucky while also bringing Providence to a Final Four appearance. Along with his success at the college level, Pitino had glimpses of greatness in the NBA as he was the head man for both the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks. St. John’s and the hall of fame coach have been linked for a long time, as Pitino was born and raised in New York City. Pitino even expressed significant interest in becoming the coach back in 2019 before the Red Storm chose Anderson. Despite some of the detractors who are not fond of Pitino because of the allegations surrounding his recruiting methods, there is no denying that he is a bona fide winner. After Iona’s season ended at the hands of UCONN in the NCAA Tournament last Friday, St. John’s quickly went to work on securing Pitino, and the two sides met on Sunday to arrange a deal. Monday afternoon as Rick was meeting with Iona higher-ups and players, the news came out that St. John’s and Rick Pitino came to an agreement on a 6-year contract for him to be the head coach of St. John’s.

This is a monumental decision for both St. John’s basketball and St. John’s University alike. St. John’s has done a poor job at recapturing the success of Hall of Fame coach Lou Carnesecca, who led St. John’s basketball during their golden years which included a final four appearance in 1985. This new hiring leaves no doubt that St. John’s will be back at the top of the college basketball world as Rick Pitino immediately brings St. John’s more national media attention, more boosters, more recruits, more transfers, more money, and more winning. St. John’s has hit a grand slam with this hiring and immediately brings validity back to the program and, most importantly, brings winning back to Queens. Rick Pitino said it best in his opening press conference Tuesday afternoon, “St. John’s is going to be back, I guarantee that.”