Former Louisville coach Rick Pitino hired at Iona

Former coach reached three Final Fours and won a national championship at Louisville

Former Louisville men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino agreed to become Iona’s next head coach March 14. After 10 seasons as Iona’s head coach, Tim Cluess stepped down due to health concerns.

Pitino returns to college basketball after a three-year absence.

“My passion in basketball started in New York and will end there at Iona College,” Pitino said in a statement. “At Iona, I will work with the same passion, hunger and drive that I’ve had for over 40 years. There is a real professionalism in how things are run here and this is a very tight, strong community.”

Pitino coached at Louisville from 2001 to 2017, winning more than 400 games, reaching three Final Fours and winning a national championship in 2013. Pitino was fired from Louisville in 2017 due to a federal bribery investigation.

He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013. Pitino was the first coach in NCAA history to take three different teams to the NCAA Final Four. He won a national championship in 1996 and reached three Final Four while at Kentucky.

Pitino was announced as the Panathinaikos, a team in the EuroLeague, in December 2018. He coached one season for the professional team in Greece.

Pitino was hired as Greece's National Team head coach in November 2019. 

Pitino coached two different teams in the NBA, the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics.