Well, since I'm pretty certian Pitino was not on any short list of potential st. john's hires, highly likely not on any long list, and pretty likely his name if it came up (which I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't) took all of about 30 seconds to dismiss.
The AD at Iona knew the risk reward, and as soon as administration agreed to speak to Pitino, one thing Rick still has is charm and passion. His ability to sell has been honed over 40 years of wooing top notch talent to his programs, getting the Celtics to drop a bundle on him, and getting hired for just about any job that he wanted.
Rick tells a story about his first date with his wife as a teenager, where he promised he would take her out for a steak dinner. Visions of Peter Lugers or some other renowned high end place that teens usually don't dine at danced in her head. Where did they end up going? Ponderosa.
Iona is a Ponderosa among the high Div 1 steakhouses Pitino would have much preferred. He came to the realization that no big time program would go near him, and that even the unsuccessful wannabes in the high D1 leagues weren't calling either.
He's at Iona now because that's the best he could get. No other reason. No one would touch him. We blamed St. John's and even Mike Jarvis for some incredibly stupid decisions that some players made that night in Pittsburgh when they hired a hooker, and compounded it when they decided not to pay her. Imagine now if a head coach was aware that hookers were being hired to seduce HS recruits to coming to his school. We lamented over Keita's revelation that he was getting an extra $300 per month in expense money from Jarvis. Compare that to Pitino being aware that his best players were paid $150,000 or whatever it was to come to Louisville. Forget even that he got a cocktail waitress pregnant, but the after story was that Pitino encouraged his assistant to marry her.
Maybe Pitino did what a lot of top programs were doing - allow shoe companies to buy players for top schools. Maybe he saw that mountain to steep to climb by words alone, even from perhaps the best recruiter of his era.
When you package all of those indiscretions together, Pitino becomes a pariah.
I do understand in our landscape, we are forced to choose our leaders among some candidates who have been accused of some pretty horrible things. We are dismissive because we dislike what we perceive the other side really stands for. In all, we've become anesthetized to their indiscretions by moral relativity. "What my guys has done or is accused of doing doesn't compare to what the other side's guy has done"
This modern day erosion of values spills into all aspects of our lives. A generation ago, we still loved certain musicians and performing artists who behaved badly, because, well, it didn't have much to do with the art that they created. Perhaps that's even an acceptable position. A rock or rap star may have a criminal record, drug history, or any numbers of indiscretions that are distasteful but their music was still great.
However a guy like Pitino brought all of those distasteful aspects to work with him to gain a competitive advantage, to get the best players that the best coach could hone into a champion.
I'm reminded of two comments from great coaches. We repeat the Frank McGuire line here all the time, "I'll get the players and you coach, and I'll beat you every time." John Wooden was once asked if he was the greatest basketball coach in America. He said "I'm certain I'm not." Who then? "It is almost certainly some guy you never heard of, coaching in high school or even youth leagues somewhere. You never heard of him because he never had the talent, but he was still the greatest coach anywhere. I had the talent to win"
Yea many coaches cheat. Yea, Pitino would have put us quickly back near the top of the Big East. For SJU and just about every other big time program, the price was too high.
