Getting Ricked

There actually are second acts in American life, no matter what F. Scott Fitzgerald said to the contrary. It's just that a lot of times there shouldn't be.

Which is another way of saying I wouldn't want to be an Iona alum today. Smoting oneself in the forehead kinda hurts.

This upon the news that the NCAA handed down another batch of charges tied to Rick Pitino's lawless regime at Louisville, including a Level I violation -- the first-degree murder of NCAA infractions -- and three Level II violations that explicitly single out Pitino for, basically, being a crook. And that's not good news for Iona, which just threw five-plus million American dollars at him to do for Iona what he did for Louisville.

Minus, you know, that bit about running a brothel out of the basketball center and using shoe companies as a middle man to pay recruits to come to the 'Ville. And also this latest stuff.

A million a year or thereabouts would seem like a foolish investment for a coach with Pitino's immediate resume, but Pitino, dirty as he is, also wins. And winning is everything in college buckets, because winning generates revenue and revenue is what keeps the wheel spinning in college athletics just like it does in any other high-dollar corporate enterprise.

And so Iona averted its gaze, held its nose and hired itself a notoriously corrupt fixer for a basketball program that went 12-17 in 2019-2020 and hasgotten past the first round of the NCAA Tournament once in this century. And now it looks as if it's going to get Ricked for its troubles.

"We have no reason to believe that would happen," Iona athletic director Matt Glovaski said when asked if its new head coach would be punished by the NCAA for the latest infractions.

You could almost see the beads of flop sweat popping out on his forehead as he said this.

And see all those Iona alums smiting their foreheads and saying "Why on earth did we hire THIS guy?"

Although maybe their eyes are fogged, too, by the stacks of money a dirty program could bring in. You never know these days.