Rick Pitino reportedly agrees to six-year deal with St. John’s

Rick Pitino is set to become the new men’s basketball coach at St. John’s, a person familiar with the agreement told The Associated Press.

The person spoke to The AP on condition of anonymity Monday because the school had not yet made the announcement. Pitino is expected to be formally introduced by St. John’s during a news conference Tuesday at Madison Square Garden.

ESPN reported on Monday that Pitino had agreed to a six-year contract. The report said that Pitino would inform his Iona Gaels team of his decision to leave in a meeting on Monday afternoon.

FOX Sports’ John Fanta reported on Saturday that St. John’s intended to hire Pitino and that the coach was interested in the position.

Pitino’s Gaels concluded their season with an 87-63 loss to UConn on Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Pitino, 70, is the only coach in college basketball history to lead three programs — Providence, Kentucky and Louisville — to the Final Four, and has won 711 games in his coaching career. He won national championship in 1996 (Kentucky) and 2013 (Louisville, which was later vacated).

St. John’s university president Brian Shanley and athletic director Mike Cragg viewed their coaching search as an opportunity to turn the Red Storm back into a relevant force in college basketball, sources told Fanta. The program missed four straight NCAA Tournaments under Mike Anderson and has not won a game in the big dance in 23 years.

For Pitino, who lives at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y., the prospect of coaching St. John’s means he does not have to move, with the course being roughly 23 miles from the St. John’s University campus.

The move back to Queens gives him the opportunity to step back into the Big East Conference, where he was from 1985-87 while at Providence, then from 2005-13 while at Louisville.

For a St. John’s program that has spent several years off the national map in college basketball, this move to acquire Pitino, who’s no longer tied down to NCAA investigation or threat of sanctions, signals a clear desire to win by the Red Storm and to return to relevance in New York City.

St. John’s has the ninth-most wins among Division I teams, with 90 winning seasons in its 116-year basketball history.

The school has reached two Final Fours (1952, 1985) and won the NIT a record six times — including back-to-back crowns in the 1940s when that event was still often considered the country’s premier postseason tournament.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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