Rick Pitino began his basketball coaching career as an assistant in 1974. The landscape of collegiate athletics looked very different at the time.
In fact, things are completely different today than they were when Pitino was fired at Louisville in 2017.
Although the 71-year-old has a lot of experience on the highest level of college basketball, his new job at St. John’s requires him to take a very different approach to the game. There is a stark contrast between his three seasons at Iona and the Big East.
Not only is it a different level of competition on the hardwood, Rick Pitino and the Red Storm have to adapt their off-the-court approach to keep up with other top schools in their conference like Marquette and UConn, the reigning national champions. The same can be said for schools like Kentucky, USC, Alabama, Duke, Michigan State and Kansas.
A big focus in the modern era of college sports is money. More specifically, NIL.
This is new to Pitino. Name, Image and Likeness became legal while he was with the Gaels, but a small school like Iona doesn’t have the same financial backing. It also doesn’t have to spend as much money to stay competitive in its conference.
St. John’s has to spend money. The NIL backing in Queens is just as important as its record.
Like many things in life, money and success in college hoops are intrinsically linked at their core. Pitino has already shown no regard for human life when it comes to the amount of money he plans to spend.
Rick Pitino is tapping Wall Street for financial help in more ways than one.
Pitino brought his team to the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. They got their first taste of Wall Street as he rang The Opening Bell.
But it goes beyond in-person appearances.
There is a large contingency of alumni who attended St. John’s and went on to work in finance in Manhattan. Pitino has been working hard to get them on board.
He has been networking as often as possible with the university’s alumni in the economics space. The goal is to have them get involved with the Red Storm’s NIL collective as contributors.
Beyond financial backing, Pitino has also turned to Wall Street for financial advice. Not for him, but for his players.
Jim Riley, a St. John’s graduate and former managing director at Goldman Sachs, recently spoke to the St. John’s basketball program about how best to handle their money. He taught the players to understand their taxes and encouraged them to start investing as soon as they can.
It’s also safe to assume that Pitino put a bug in Riley’s ear about donating to the collective!