Iona's Rick Pitino Eyes Coaching Until He's 80: 'I Think I Still Have It'

At 70 years old, Iona Gaels head coach Rick Pitino doesn't plan on leaving the sidelines any time soon, telling reporters at the NCAA men's basketball tournament that he hopes to continue coaching for at least another 10 years.

"Well, I'm physically fit and mentally I think I still have it," Pitino said Thursday. "But my wife always says, 'If you want to make God laugh, make a plan.' I think you just take it one year at a time. Now, my desire would be to coach that long."

Pitino later added that he'd love to coach for as many as 12 more years, "but I'll take six to seven." He explained that his time away from basketball refueled his love for his craft.

"Really, the two years I was out of coaching was really the most miserable two years of my life because I missed it so much because I love teaching, I love coaching, I love motivating - everything about it, I missed it terribly," he said.

Pitino was the head coach of the Louisville Cardinals from 2001 to 2017, leading the program to three Final Fours and a national championship. He was placed on administrative leave before his dismissal for his involvement in a recruiting scandal in which players allegedly were paid to play for the Cardinals.

After leaving Louisville, Pitino went to Greece in Dec. 2018 to coach at Panathinaikos before returning to college basketball as Iona head coach in March 2020. He has since led the Gaels to a 64-21 record in three seasons and two NCAA tournament appearances. The 13th-seeded Gaels will face fourth-seeded UConn in a first-round game on Friday.

Pitino has been linked to recent head-coach openings at St. John's and Georgetown, but he noted that he feels a special level of commitment to Iona.

"The thing you have to look at is my players don't leave unless they just can't play at this level," he said. "They came for player development. They didn't come for any other reason other than player development. ... So that's really important to me as well. I look at that as the No. 1 factor in my life. So to answer your question that would be honest, it's going to take a special place for me to consider leaving."

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