Rick Pitino calls NCAA enforcement staff 'inept'

If anyone has a bone to pick with the NCAA enforcement staff it would be St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino. Pitino was hit with an investigation that effectively ended his stint as Louisville’s head coach in 2017.

Louisville was one of a few programs targeted in an alleged FBI wiretap scandal that purportedly uncovered a “pay-for-play” scheme. Pitino was caught up in it.

He was fired by Louisville as a result, though Rick Pitino would later sue the program. And in the ensuing settlement, the terms of Pitino’s ouster were changed from a firing to a resignation.

In any case, Pitino has legitimate grounds to be upset with the NCAA, particularly after he was exonerated of the accusations. Pitino opened up on that a bit on Monday on The Pat McAfee Show.

“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.”

There’s obviously a certain element to that in which it becomes extremely difficult to recruit. There’s a constant black cloud hanging over your head.

Rick Pitino opted to coach outside the NCAA as a result. He headed to Greece.

“So after five years I get exonerated, well now I’m over in Greece coaching a legendary program, Panathinaikos, and to be perfectly honest with you I thought I was going to end my career in the Euroleague,” Pitino said. “Which wasn’t bad, by the way. I was visiting Moscow, St. Petersburg, Madrid, Tel Aviv. I visited places I never experienced. Panathinaikos is like the Boston Celtics of Europe. So it was a wonderful thing for me. I learned an awful lot at age 65 being over there, so I thought that was the end for me.”

Even then, when Rick Pitino got the opportunity to come back stateside and coach, he took it. He worked at Iona from 2020-23.

He made two NCAA Tournament appearances there. That paved the way for a move to St. John’s, which was just too perfect an offer to pass up on.

“Then I went back to coach Iona University, where we were lucky enough to go to the NCAA two out of three years,” Pitino said. “That was very exciting. I wouldn’t have moved from Iona; to St. John’s as a local team, I got a chance to move over here.”

Now, of course, Rick Pitino has St. John’s back in the NCAA Tournament. The Red Storm are a two-seed in the West Region and are being picked by many analysts to make it out of the region. Quite the ride for Pitino.