Don't expect Iona's Rick Pitino to follow Jim Boeheim, Mike Krzyzewski in retirement anytime soon

While Pitino is at the helm of his sixth Division I college program (and spent time coaching the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks as well), some of his fellow 70-something contemporaries like Jim Boeheim and Mike Krzyzewski spent their entire career (in the case of Boeheim) or nearly their entire career (Krzyzewski) with one school, at Syracuse and Duke respectively. Excluding Coach K's five seasons with Army from 1975 to 1980, when you combine his tenure with the Blue Devils with Boeheim's run with the Orange, the iconic duo spent nearly 90 years with their respective programs.

Pitino's longest stint with one team (college or NBA) was 16 years with Louisville from 2001 to 2017.

Krzyzewski retired following the 2021-2022 season at 75 years old and Boeheim announced his retirement last week at 78 years old. Pitino has a chance to surpass both of them if his lofty goals are reached.

With vacancies at big-time programs like Georgetown and St. John's creating plenty of chatter, Pitino said he isn't paying attention to it, and neither are his Iona players.

According to Rothstein, Pitino said he would love to coach as many as 12 more years, but he'd settle for "six to seven."

"The thing you have to look at is my players don't leave unless they just can't play at this level," he said. "They came for player development. They didn't come for any other reason other than player development.

The back-to-back MAAC Coach of the Year award winner added that he should have most of his core group of Gaels returning for the 2023-2024 campaign.

"And I'm sure Iona is going to have, in the future, NILs like everybody else. But I have a terrific team coming back [Walter] Clayton [Jr.], Daniss [Jenkins], Nelly [Junior Joseph], Osborn [Shema] -- four starters are returning, I have two or three guys coming off the bench," Pitino said. "So that's really important to me as well. I look at that as the No. 1 factor in my life. So to answer your question that would be honest, it's going to take a special place for me to consider leaving."

Though his brief NBA coaching career was mostly underwhelming, he's racked up two national titles and six Final Four appearances through his work with Louisville, Kentucky and Providence. He's 64-21 in three seasons with Iona with two NCAA Tournament appearances.

The Gaels won't have to leave their home state in order to try and upset the Huskies, as they'll travel to MVP Arena in Albany, New York for Friday's first round contest, just over two hours north of their campus in New Rochelle.