Rick Pitino exited the court at Madison Square Garden with an index finger in the air, cheers ringing in his ears, a man returning to his element. He applauded the St. John’s Red Storm pep band for its efforts, then slapped hands with fans hanging over the railing. It had been a labyrinthine journey to this homecoming, the kind of March moment both the underachieving program and the aging coach envisioned a year ago when Pitino was hired.
This is why they did it. It was inevitable that Pitino would deliver here, a prodigal son returned to this cathedral of the sport.
In many ways, the Garden has been the sun around which Pitino’s basketball life has orbited. The New York native was a New York Knicks fan as a kid, a Knicks assistant and then the head coach in the 1980s. He brought the Providence Friars to the building for the Big East tournament from 1985 to ’87, then the Louisville Cardinals from 2006 to ’13.
