Thursday, March 20, 2025
Kevin Stacom, Sports Analyst
View Larger + Rick Pitino PHOTO: PC via Twitter
There probably isn’t a better sports atmosphere in New England than when Providence gets to host an NCAA 1st and 2nd round basketball Tournament weekend.
It’s a great vibe when people from all different parts of the country get together to root for their team to see if they can measure up against some of the best competition in a dramatic ‘win or you’re out’ format. There’s really nothing like it.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE — SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTMedia and content creators across the board are always seeking narratives that can hold audiences’ attention and effectively draw them in with compelling storylines. And then an episode appears, once in a rare while, that contains so many layers of dramatic content and irony that you would cynically assume it would have to be artificially manufactured and contrived, that a script such as this would be rejected by any studio head for its lack of believability.
Well, along those lines, I think there is a reason that the St.John’s game vs. Omaha on Thursday night at 9:45 PM is probably going to be the hottest ticket in Providence since the appearance of Andrea Bocelli. And that reason is Rick Pitino – for a lot of reasons.
One of the best research tools I learned as a scout for many years was the site www.sports-reference.com. When you plug in Rick Pitino’s coaching record, it is truly mind-boggling what unfolds, as a list from his 1st head job at BU, down through Providence, Kentucky, Louisville, Iona, and currently, St John’s appears. A span of 47 years between 1978 to present 2025. Not included in that listing of college stints are three professional head jobs with the Knicks (‘87-‘89), Celtics (‘97-2001), and Panathinaikos, Greece (2018-2020). Amazing.
In the wake of Pitino’s great season, winning the Big East regular season title and the Big East Tournament Championship, and as St John’s surged to their present #5 national ranking (highest since 1991), a lot of Pitino’s incredible resume has been reiterated- seven Final Four appearances, two National Championships ( Kentucky, Louisville), and the first college coach in history to bring six different schools to the NCAA Tournament
But I think it’s the last parts of Rick Pitino’s coaching journey that are probably the most defining, and that part that draws us to him the most.
In an appearance on Monday on ESPN’s Pat McAfee show, Pitino mildly bristled at the concept of “redemption” that was presented to him in the course of the interview.
“I really don’t believe in the word ‘redemption’ because those who judge you really don’t know the facts. They really don’t know either way, innocent or guilty. They don’t know it,” said Pitino.
After 16 years at Louisville, Pitino was fired by Louisville during a federal investigation into fraud and corruption in college basketball in October of 2019. What a lot of people might not remember is that the investigation was initiated by a Wall Street swindler who was looking at a conviction involving serious jail time for fraud. In a plea deal seeking to reduce his sentence, he approached investigators with a scheme to set up, through his supposed insider contacts, a number of big-name coaches, agents, and sneaker executives in an all-encompassing sting operation.
It’s a very nasty business when law enforcement gets in the business of creating crimes.
“Well, the NCAA enforcement staff is, I won’t call them corrupt, I will call them inept,” Pitino said. “And the reason I say that is it takes them five years to decide your fate. So whether you’re guilty or innocent doesn’t matter; it’s going to take them five years to judge you.”
No need to rehash the details, but in November 2022, Pitino was exonerated by the Independent Accountability Resolution Process (IARP).
“Then, when the trial came about, I was exonerated, as one by one, everybody got on the stand: the recruit’s Dad, the Adidas representatives – I settled the lawsuit with Adidas, and it all came together for me. I had to wait two and half years for the trial to get exonerated,” said Pitino.
In a different interview with Nikola Miloadovic at [email protected], Coach Pitino further explained, “I left a great job at Louisville, and I didn’t hang my head. I took off for Greece. I didn’t know one person, my wife and family didn’t go with me.”
Think about that. He obviously didn’t need the money.
The point of all this is to illustrate when we all are invited into, like a real-life reality show, snippets of a Pitino half-time speech or a heat-of-the-moment key huddle during a time out in the latter stages of the game, the reason I think it’s entertainment level compelling and that his exhortations are effective is that he knows from whence he speaks.
The main theme in most of Pitino’s speeches is the idea of buckling down and facing and overcoming adversity head on and who better to deliver that message with conviction other than someone who at the age of 65 went to a foreign land with only his passion for a game and the talent to coach it after experiencing such deep-seated rejection.
This is in addition to returning to the American college game and having the humility to start again at a mid-major level (Iona) after so many years of the big-time glamour of huge cheering crowds at NBA, Kentucky, and Louisville arenas.
There’s a reason that a lot of fans in Providence will be rooting for Pitino on Thursday night and it’s the same reason that his players play as hard for him as any in the country. There’s an authenticity that makes the fancy suits irrelevant.
There are a good number of us who have witnessed Pitino from his young frenetic beginnings at PC and all through his journey to the present time. It’s good to see him being at a level again where he belongs and having a platform where his considerable talents can be appreciated. He has more than earned the right to be where he is now.
Kevin Stacom is one of the most accomplished Providence College basketball players in history. An All-American at Providence, Stacom was a second-round NBA draft pick, played six years in the NBA, and won an NBA championship as a member of the Boston Celtics.
After his playing career, Stacom coached at the college level and served as an NBA scout for nearly 30 years for the Golden State Warriors and Dallas Mavericks.
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