Everything Rick Pitino and Iona Said After NCAA Tournament Loss to Alabama

Herb Jones led Alabama with 20 points as the Crimson Tide basketball team pulled off a 58-46 victory in the 2021 NCAA Tournament in Indianapolis on Saturday. 

Iona was the fifth program Rick Pitino had brought to the tournament after the Gaels (12-6) went 50 days without playing a game in midseason due to COVID-19 problems. They won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament as a 9 seed.

Pitino had his worst seed ever as second-seeded Alabama (25-6) advanced to the second round.

Here’s everything Iona had to say after the game:

Well, I’m proud of our guys. We thought we could beat Alabama, to be honest with you. We had to cut down the three, cut down their transition, keep them away from the basket, and then do a lot of positive things offensively.

With the game on the line, we gave up two threes. Because they’re used to running back in the lane, and against this basketball team you can’t do that. I’m real proud of our guys. We have been offensively challenged all year because we’re in our first year where we had to bring in 12 new players. We’re going to be better next year because we have more troops coming in offensively to help us.

But they gave me their heart the entire year, so I’m real proud of them. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough weapons to play against Alabama.

Q. I wanted to ask you, can you reflect on what this whole season, return has been like, especially being back here where you’ve had so much success?

RICK PITINO: Tonight we thought with every phase we could stay in the game. The one area I’m surprised at was the rebounding. They beat us 42-26. Now, we did a great job defending them. They had 13 second shots. That was the key. Take away the three, but don’t give them a second shot. We did, and that was our demise.

I’m real proud to be at Iona. I think we can build something really special. We’re in the infancy stages of recruiting right now. We’re going to recruit bigger, better players. But I couldn’t be prouder of the guys that are here.

So we learned a lot. We have a lot of difficulty scoring because it’s the first year. But I just wanted to focus on defense, and they did a good job with that. And we’ll get better, we’ll get much better. I’m proud of Asante and Isaiah moving on, hopefully for greener pastures for them. They’re two terrific guys that gave me a lot this year.

Q. Overall what did this team, in particular this year, mean to you? How good is this Alabama team moving forward?

RICK PITINO: Well, they’re a very good team. It all depends. If you stop the three and you keep them in the 60s, low 70s, all their losses have come that way. If they’re good at the three, they’re tough. They’re very good off the bounce, they have a great system. They’re very good defensively, as well. They’re very good.

I don’t know who they’re going to play or how far they can go. I know we thought we could win tonight. We didn’t win. We’re very disappointed. But we give all the credit to Alabama for a great victory.

Q. This season in particular, what did it mean to you to get back into the college game, get back here into the big dance for you personally?

RICK PITINO: Well, I tell you, the thing is never really about me. I came back to Iona, I wanted no part of the so-called big-time any more. I had enough of that. I wanted to take a smaller school, like a Providence, like an Iona, small school, and try to make it big. But I wanted no part of any of that other. I had enough of that. It turned me off, to be quite honest with you, in a lot of different areas.

I now don’t have to look over my shoulder to see who I’m going to trust, who I’m not going to trust. I’m in heaven right now and where I need to be. It’s what I call a ball, a boy and a dream, like I was when I was 12 years old. It’s terrific to be here.

We’re going to be much better next year. Our schedule is going to pick up so if we don’t win the MAC, we may be good enough with our schedule to get an at-large bid if we’re winning. Got a lot of work ahead of us, but I’m real excited to be at Iona. It’s a terrific place with great values.

Q. When you look at just kind of what this team did with all the pauses, having almost a completely new team, new coaching staff, what is your overall feeling of this team and this season?

RICK PITINO: I think the toughest thing was missing — really missing two months of practice where we couldn’t hone down on different defenses. We never even really pressed unless we’re trying to wear people down or we’re down in the game.

You think about it. Two months of the season missing practice, then each time coming out of shape. That was our bad luck. We still came out of pause five days before the conference tournament, played four games in five days, came away with a victory. If we didn’t give up two threes by the five man, this is anybody’s game. Probably haunt me for the summer.

We thought we could do it tonight, we didn’t. So you give all the credit to Alabama.

Q. Were you proud of how your guys handled everything this year?

RICK PITINO: I’m real proud of our guys. Like I said, we were offensively challenged this year. We have two young men, Nelly Joseph and Osborn Shema, who are just beginners, learning the game. I think they’re going to both be terrific basketball players. We have some guys coming in from Australia, from other places that are really going to help us offensively.

So recruiting has been the key. I got the alphabet man, all he does is recruit, so I’m positive about that.

Q. You mentioned that you were turned off by the big programs or the big spotlight. Talk a little bit more about that. What do you say —

RICK PITINO: I’m not turned off by the big programs. I’m turned off about what happened to me. I want no part of that any more. I just want to just coach, teach young people how to become better basketball players. It’s no longer about me trying to move up any ladders, make more money. I’m at a great place in my life. I can coach six, seven more years, God willing, just try to make young men better, try to make the program reach heights it’s never reached. That’s all I have planned.

It’s a great place to be. There’s some things that suck about being 68. The great thing about it is being at Iona, being able to teach with nobody bothering you, just make the players better. It’s a great place to be. So I’m a very lucky man that our president, our athletic director flew over to Madrid, Spain, and offered me the job.

Q. You mentioned how it’s tough to slow down a team that runs up and down like that. What did you see especially in the first half game planning-wise that allowed you to keep it within reach?

RICK PITINO: We had everything in our favor except we kept the score down in the 30s, which every loss to them it what it’s been. We ran some good sets that got good shots for people. We turned it over too much in the second half. We got dominated on the glass. That’s probably the biggest surprise in the game, that we got dominated on the glass so much. That was real surprising to me because they’re not known for that.

They had 42 rebounds. If you play great defense and you stop them, then turn around and give 13 second shots, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

Overall we’ll work on the fundamentals. But I think missing two months is a lot for these guys. They never hung their heads. They never complained. They just fought through it, came back and made the NCAA, so I’m real proud of them.

Q. You’ve talked a lot about how you want to make Iona into a big-time program, the Gonzaga of the East Coast. How do you look at this season in terms of that mission? Do you think this was a really good first step for making that happen?

RICK PITINO: I think it was a giant step in terms of building a defensive culture that was totally foreign to these players. Look, the program was in shambles because they had one of the best coaches in the game, and unfortunately he got sick that year, and they played without their leader. It was a lost year for the program. Indicative of it, they had a losing year. They were 13 and something.

Coming back with 12 new players, two seniors giving me everything they have, it’s a good first step to building a culture, a winning culture, that can play against the Alabamas of the world and hold their own. They did it for a period of time.

We were still not in the condition that we need to be to play like we did the Monmouth game where we go up and down. With their weapons, we couldn’t go up and down with this team. We would have gotten blown out.

Q. How much fuel does this give you to win the conference next year and go further than the first round?

RICK PITINO: Well, that’s the goal of ours. I think lifetime, this place is 0-13, 0-14 now of getting out of the first round. In defense, they’ve always had bad seeds. But if you’re good enough, if a Nelly Joseph goes on and becomes the player I think he can be, like a Montrezl Harrell, like a dominating basketball player, Osborn Shema can put on 25 pounds, we have our two studs up front. I have a young man from Kentucky that’s going to be a terrific basketball player.

Now we have to replace Gist and Ross. We think we have their replacements on the way. We got to get better at the three spot. We think we have a very talented young man coming in. We think we have four or five really talented men coming in.

I think it was more losing the two months of practice, if I had to pinpoint anything that really hurt us, it was the two months of practice.

Q. You started the season against a power conference team in Seton Hall, now it ends against another power program. How do you feel you were more equipped today to handle that type of team?

RICK PITINO: Well, if you remember, we played Seton Hall a great half. Sometimes when you sub, like we went with a walk-on today as a sub, he hardly played, and he did a fabulous job for us. So next year we won’t necessarily have to do that. Next year we’re going to play Seton Hall in the Garden, Brigham Young in the Garden, play in a tournament with Alabama, Kansas. We hope to play the New Mexico Lobos, if my son is not too afraid of the mighty Gaels, we’ll play him and improve the schedule.

I got a lot of respect for the MAC. It’s not easy. These teams are really well-coached. Every guy I’m impressed with. So we can’t take anything for granted. We just got to improve the program, take the next step. We will take the next step. There’s no doubt in my mind that Iona is going to be a force to be reckoned with down the road.

Q. You think the score could have been a little bit different, granted you only have five free throw attempts today?

RICK PITINO: Yeah, the referees were awful. They just screwed us unmercifully (laughter). No, the referees were great. The referees were great. I have absolutely no complaints. All three refs were super.

18% of their points come from the foul line. So I have no complaint at all about that.

No, I think we fouled too much all season. That was problem number one. Problem number two, because I’m running a lot of Euro league offenses where everybody handles the ball, they still haven’t learned to go backdoor like the Euro league teams. We had more turnovers.

Two things I wanted to get in: the passing motion Euro league offenses and our man-to-man defense. We accomplished both. So the referees were great. Alabama was terrific. Their coach is outstanding. Everything about them is terrific. But I’m real proud of my team, as well.

Transcript courtesy of asapsports.com 

This story will be updated with player interviews