Iona Hiring Rick Pitino As New Basketball Coach?
Is Iona hiring Rick Pitino as the team’s new basketball coach? Things are heading in that general direction.
On Friday afternoon, Tim Cluess announced that he was stepping down as the head coach of the Gaels basketball program for health reasons.
He originally took over in 2010 and transformed the team into a legitimate MAAC powerhouse.
Over the course of his first eight years, he ultimately won more than 20 games on seven separate occasions. Moreover, on his watch, the program reached the NCAA Tournament on six occasions.
Between 2016 and 2019, Iona locked up four tournament slots in a row.
Unfortunately, things were not as kind to Cluess this past season.
Two candidates in the mix are Rick Pitino And Jared Grasso, per sources https://t.co/DsurFrARFK
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) March 13, 2020
Last year, the team went 11-16 and managed just a 9-11 in-conference mark. As such, his departure was not particularly surprising.
The big question now becomes: who will fill his shoes?
According to Adam Zangoria, Pitino’s name is being floated as a potential candidate.
The 67-year-old has obviously been away from the college game since being fired amid an FBI probe back in 2017. Over the past couple of seasons he has been coaching in Greece, first overseeing Panathinaikos and then the Greek National Team.
That said, college coaching is in his blood – and he wants back in.
Will Iona ultimately be the school to make that happen? Time will tell.
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A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
