Iona basketball coach Rick Pitino has the Gaels (20–7) sitting atop the MAAC with the league’s tournament slated to begin in less than two weeks at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
But as Pitino prepares to lead Iona to a second consecutive regular-season title with aspirations of securing a second conference tournament championship in March and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, his coaching future in college basketball has become a hot topic.
In the coming weeks, several high-profile coaching opportunities are slated to become vacant, including potential Big East jobs like Georgetown and St. John’s, among others. However, even as higher-tier programs emerge, Pitino told Matt Norlander of CBS Sports that it would take a “really special” program to lure him away from Iona.
