Tag: Rick Pitino

Former Celtics coach, GM Rick Pitino returns to college ranks at Iona

Ex-Boston Celtics head honcho Rick Pitino will return to the college ranks to coach Iona next season.

Former Boston Celtics head coach and president of basketball operations Rick Pitino has returned to the U.S. college ranks, reports CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein.

Pitino took over as head honcho for the Celtics at the end of legendary team president Red Auerbach’s era in 1997, serving as not only head coach but also general manager and president of basketball operations.

Pitino held the posts until 2001, and presided over one of the least-successful stretches of the NBA’s most successful franchises, causing him to be roundly criticized for his handling of the franchise during his relatively short tenure.

Pitino went on to have success returning to the college ranks, winning an NCAA championship with the Louisville Cardinals before scandal at that school forced his ouster in 2017 after an FBI investigation revealed a raft of NCAA violations and crimes committed during his tenure as head coach.

After swearing off the profession in 2018, the New Yorker returned to coach the Greek Panathinaikos B.C. franchise, which plays in the Euroleague.

Pitino will now return to the U.S. to coach at Iona, a small college in New Rochelle, New York that plays in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

While he won’t likely get many warm welcomes from Boston fans of that era n his return, the students and alumni of Iona will be getting one of the game’s better minds in Pitino.

Let’s hope the negative press that plagued the former Celtics GM in the past doesn’t follow.

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20 college coaches who flopped in the pros

John Beilein is the latest college coach to flame out when trying his hand in the pros.

John Beilein is done with the Cleveland Cavaliers a half-year into a four-year contract. The former Michigan coach isn’t alone in college coaches who failed to make it in the pros. It happens, over and over.

Basketball: John Beilein

David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

The Cleveland Cavaliers are 14-40 and that will be the final record for their coach of the first half of the 2019-20 season, John Beilein.

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The Shanahans and 21 other fathers and sons who became coaches/managers

Mike and Kyle Shanahan are one of a number of father-son tandems to have coached or managed.

Mike and Kyle Shanahan are a father-son combo that has done well in coaching, for sure. There are many sons that have followed their dad’s careers.

Eddie, Scott and Sean Sutton

Phil Carter-USA TODAY Sports

The Suttons have held many jobs in college basketball. Eddie was the head coach of Creighton, Arkansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma State, and University of San Francisco. He has taken two schools (Arkansas and Oklahoma State) to the Final Four, and was the first coach to lead four schools to the NCAA tournament. Sean Sutton was a head coach of Oklahoma State University and Scott Sutton coached Oral Roberts University,

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Pitino said he wanted his team to take …

Pitino said he wanted his team to take at least 10 3s a game. One of his best shooters, Trent Tucker, told Pitino he had to warm up to shooting 3s. Pitino told him to warm up by taking them. He hated shots in the 18- to 22-foot range. He often raised his hands when one of his players fired a 3, then pumped his fist when it went in. One game, the Knicks went 0 for 7 from 3-point range, which was part of a prolonged drought. Pitino wasn’t fazed. The Knicks made an NBA record 11 3s in their next game. “They’ll know I’ll be upset if they don’t take the 3s,” he said. This was at a time when most of the NBA still ignored the line. Sports Illustrated wrote that “most coaches get queasy even talking about the 3-pointer and consider it a kind of guilty pleasure at best.”