Rick Pitino has left the door open a crack.
The Hall of Famer has repeatedly said Iona College will be the last stop in his legendary career, but when asked by The Post this week, he took a somewhat different stance.
“My goal is to finish my career at Iona. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t entertain to be an NBA coach again,” the 69-year-old Pitino said from his new office at the New Rochelle school. “I can’t say [I won’t coach at another college], because then you look like a liar if you ever do. My total motive is to stay here. I’m a New Yorker. I want to end my career in New York. I live in a place I want to live. But you never know.”
The biggest factor, Pitino said, is the school’s leadership remaining in place and sharing the same aspirations as he does for the program. Since Pitino arrived, the administration has walked the walk. Iona, the heavy MAAC favorite with an impressive 17-3 record heading into a game Sunday against St. Peter’s, has remade the basketball offices, weight room and locker room for both the men’s and women’s teams, and added a fueling station for players, which offers unlimited food.
“As long as they have the same goals I have, I have no reason to leave,” said Pitino, who wants to coach for up to seven more years. “[They want] to make it better and better and better.”
Pitino said after reaching the NCAA Tournament last March in his first season at Iona, a few “high-powered schools” reached out to him, but he wasn’t interested. Those schools, according to sources, were Indiana and UNLV. The Maryland job recently opened, after the school parted ways with Mark Turgeon in early December, and there is speculation the Big Ten school will take a long look at Pitino, who is grossly underpaid at less than $1 million per season. He does have a $5 million buyout and three years remaining on his contract after this one, sources said.
Asked if he would have interest in Maryland, Pitino said he’s “full bore” to stay at Iona next year. He eventually turned the subject to his son Richard, who is now coaching at New Mexico.
“If he turns that program around, in three years he’s going to have to say, ‘OK, why would I leave? I move up a ladder to a better school, a better conference, I make more money. I live closer to my family,’ ” Pitino said. “The motive for me is different. Money is not a factor at all. The level is not a factor. I’ve already been the Knicks, Celtics coach, Kentucky, Louisville coach. There has to be something.”
When it was suggested he wants to win big again and coach in a Final Four, Pitino smiled as if he were being issued a challenge.
“I think we can do it here,” he said. “John Calipari and I are the only coaches to take three different schools to a Final Four. I would like to get rid of him on my résumé.”