A three-year stint at Iona will never be the headliner on Rick Pitino ’s résumé, but coaching that small program in New Rochelle remains an important part of his story nonetheless.

When Iona hired him as head basketball coach in March 2020, Pitino was nearly three years removed from being fired at Louisville amid a federal investigation into fraud and corruption in the sport.

Pitino was coaching the Greek team Panathinaikos when Iona president Seamus Carey and athletic director Matthew Glovaski flew to Madrid to speak with him about the job.

“We met at an Irish pub at midnight with my son, my niece and my nephew to talk about going to Iona,” Pitino recalled this week. “We stayed from like 12 to 1, and then they went back and offered me the job. I had literally 48 hours to get out

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