St. John’s has decided to move on from head coach Mike Anderson according to CBS Sport’s John Rothstein and is eyeing Iona’s Rick Pitino to be his replacement.
Anderson just finished his fourth season with the Red Storm, trying to help restore the program to its former glory. His departure comes after an 18-15 season including a 7-13 conference record, after beating Butler in the first round of the Big East Tournament, the Red Storm lost on Thursday to the top-seeded Marquette Golden Eagles 72-70 in the quarterfinals of the tournament.
Anderson departs St. Johnson’s despite leading the Red Storm to four-straight winning seasons and an overall record of 68-56. However, the Red Storm failed to make the NCAA Tournament during his tenure.
With his success not just at St. John’s but in his career overall with a career record of 437-256, Anderson should be a popular name this offseason in the coaching carousel and should be able to find another job quite easily if he looks to continue his coaching career. During his 21 years of coaching, he has led his programs to nine NCAA Tournament appearances.
As mentioned above, Rick Pitino appears to be St. John’s top target and has reportedly been vetting Pitino for several weeks.
The long-time head coach is currently in his third season with Iona, leading the program to the NCAA Tournament in his first season in 2020-2021 as well as back-to-back regular season titles each of the last two seasons.
Pitino, of course, is best known for his tenures at Kentucky and Louisville from 1989 to 1997 and 2001 to 2017 respectively. As a head coach, he has won two national titles, one at both Kentucky and Louisville while also leading his programs to seven Final Four appearances and 23 combined regular season or conference tournament titles.
While success has followed Pitino, the 70-year-old head coach has also had his fair share of scandals during his career including a “pay-to-play” scandal at Louisville that ultimately resulted in his departure as the Cardinals’ head coach..
While Pitino’s name is thrown around in these job searches, the Iona Gaels are preparing to play tonight in the MAAC Tournament Semifinals.