Congraturation to the Uconn basketball team, as their former head coach officially announced his return.

Congraturation to the Uconn basketball team, as their former head coach officially announced his return.

The entourage is a trip, and Rick Pitino is returning to the Big East with it. A cast of folks from all over the place, from many backgrounds and professions, embraced Pitino and he returned the favor. They are a Runyonesque group that has accompanied the Hall of Fame basketball coach around the racecourse, the golf course, and basketball arenas worldwide for many years.

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This leads to a man by the name of Tom O’Grady presiding over the media in a Madison Square Garden hallway on Friday night during the Big East tournament. He is among the entourage; a native of New York who moved to Louisville 20 years ago when Pitino was the coach, and who had always supported St. John’s Red Storm. With his favorite coach and favorite school getting married, O’Grady is feeling great right now.

Head shaved and wearing a bright red sport coat, the little, flamboyant businessman managed to get into a verbal altercation with St. John’s coach Pitino and Connecticut Huskies head coach Dan Hurley that involved two bang-bang technical penalties. The main topic of discussion was what happened late in the first half, but UConn won a high-level offensive game 95–90 to go to the Big East championship game on Saturday.

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It was a scene from the 1980s, the kind of explosive rivalry that shaped the Big East back then under John Thompson, Jim Boeheim, Rollie Massimino, and, yes, an early Pitino while he was coaching the Providence Friars. This incident also had an odd co-conspirator.

March 15, 2024, sees St. John’s Red Storm head coach Rick Pitino coaching the Connecticut Huskies during the second half at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
In his comeback to the Big East tournament, Pitino is making an impression.

Brad Penner, USA TODAY Sports

The first half dustup began at 8:16 when St. John’s big man Joel Soriano was penalized for his second foul. Gorillas! Pitino growled at James Breeding, the official. A snappy T resulted from that, which Pitino later admitted he wanted. (Despite his roving sideline exploits, Pitino is significantly less of a ref baiter than many in his field.)

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O’Grady, who was hardly hiding in the red coat while seated courtside, got up and told the officials what was upsetting him. Bob Hurley, the fabled former high school coach, got up from his courtside seat and appeared to be prepared for action as well.

Dan Hurley moved to about midcourt, far from the coaching box. O’Grady took advantage of the most misused limitation in college basketball to alert the officials to Hurley’s infraction.

He’s taken off the coaching box! O’Grady claims he told the officials.

Hurley then asked O’Grady to be ejected from the arena by the referees. O’Grady was “screaming in my face,” Hurley said on the show. Clear this place of him. Breeding gave Hurley his own T.