Rick Pitino’s return to the Big East means the entourage comes with him, and the entourage is a trip. It’s a cast of characters from all over the place, with all kinds of backgrounds and occupations, people who embraced Pitino and he returned the affection. They’re a Runyonesque bunch that has followed the Hall of Fame basketball coach for decades—followed him to the racetrack, the golf course and basketball arenas all over.
Which brings us to a gentleman named Tom O’Grady holding court with the media in a Madison Square Garden hallway Friday night during the Big East tournament. He’s in the entourage—a New York native now living in Louisville, a lifetime St. John’s Red Storm fan who became a Louisville Cardinals fan after moving there 20 years ago, when Pitino was the coach. O’Grady is now riding high with the union of his favorite coach and favorite school.
Head shaved and resplendent in a bright red sport coat, the diminutive, spitfire businessman somehow was part of a verbal firefight that included two bang-bang technical fouls for Pitino, the St. John’s coach, and Dan Hurley, the Connecticut Huskies’ boss. UConn won a high-level offensive game, 95–90, advancing to the Big East title game Saturday, but the primary talking point was what went down late in the first half.
