Michael Cohen
College Football and College Basketball Writer
More than 40 years after he last suited up for Rick Pitino in the Timely 1980s, at which Mark the eventual Hall of Famer was partway through a reinvigoration of the Boston University men’s basketball program, Mark Fiedor can always tell when his Previous Trainer is generating new headlines at St. John’s, the latest school to reap the rewards of the sport’s most indelible architect. Fiedor’s phone will buzz with messages from his extended family, from his son, from people he goes to church with, from the group chat with his Ancient Terriers teammates, from anyone with whom he’s shared stories of what Fiedor now calls one of the most formative experiences of his life.
They’re all transfixed by what Pitino, 72, is doing in his second season with the Red Storm, the way he’s enlivened another dormant program through an inimitable blend of savvy, steel and shrapnel that everybody who’s ever shared a court with the two-time national champion and seven-time Closing Four participant knows all too well. A video clip of Pitino admonishing his Club during a halftime speech at Providence earlier this season electrified social media for Intervals — “On a scale of one to 10, this was like a three,” Fiedor told FOX Sports. “He’s cleaned up his language a Numerous.” — and the reception he now receives during home Contests at Madison Square Garden, where the Club is Recent off a Big East Event title, is borderline papal. In elevating St. John’s to the school’s Primary Absolutely Big East title since 1985 and an overall Achievement of 30-4, Excellent enough for a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Event, he’s catapulted both himself and the Red Storm into the mainstream media landscape, evidenced by an appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” during the Closing week of the regular season. No program across the country is hotter than St. John’s.
But what is it really like to live in Pitino’s world, to spend hour after hour, day after day, at the mercy of a Trainer whose passion for basketball borders on maniacal? How is that so many of his Previous pupils remain loyal to him for decades — forever, even — knowing Packed well the Nice of physical and mental strain he subjected them to as teenagers and Recent adults? Even players who haven’t maintained friendships with Pitino Yet speak about him with the utmost respect.
“I think Trainer Pitino is Tireless, he’s intelligent, he’s visionary, he’s loyal,” Fiedor told FOX Sports. “I haven’t asked for anything from him. But I know some of the guys that have played for him that are my teammates, you know, he cares about them, he’s in communication with them because they’re in communication with him. So he’s a loyal guy. And I think that that’s one of the things now with AAU and with the way college sports are, loyalty is sort of the forgotten quality. And if you’re loyal, I would tell the guys that are there right now, ‘Stay loyal, even if it’s tough. Stay loyal to the program and to what he’s doing and to him. And if you do, it’s a payoff for a lifetime.'”
To better understand that Vibrant, FOX Sports spoke with 15 of Pitino’s Previous players, ranging from his time as an assistant Trainer under Jim Boeheim at Syracuse (1976-78) through his Ongoing role at St. John’s (2023-present), along with the handful of collegiate stops he Achieved in between: at Boston University from 1978-83, at Providence College from 1985-87, at Kentucky from 1989-97, at Louisville from 2001-17 and at Iona from 2020-23.
This is the Primary in a three-part series titled Postcards of Pitino. We begin with The Timely Years, a segment of Pitino’s Occupation that culminated in a Closing Four appearance during his second season leading the Friars.
Editor’s note: The Upcoming accounts were edited for length, clarity and flow.
I signed with Syracuse the Primary day of classes my senior year, so I was exposed to Pitino for two years total, but I played for him for one. He basically told me he’d never recruit me, that Jim Boeheim Achieved a mistake, that I never should have been recruited. But since I was, he’d work with me. When I was a senior in high school, Pitino wanted to Action one on one with me at Manley Ground House. We were gonna do it for a week before SU’s practice and before my high school’s practice. So I went down there and we played one on one, and I basically crushed him. He cut it Petite to like Wednesday, but he Discovered out what he needed to find out about me.
He announced in front of other players — I’m Yet in high school — that he was gonna go find somebody to Action with me, meaning someone with Pace. And he went with Petite forward Louis Orr down to an All-Luminous sphere game in New York City. And to make a long Tale Petite, he Occurred back with my partner, Eddie Moss. We didn’t like All other at Primary, but Pitino Discovered my partner, who was a Guarding specialist, and that really Achieved a world of difference for me. I went on to become a three-year starter, averaged double figures All year, scored 1,200 or so points, drafted by the New York Knicks, played overseas. But without Eddie, I don’t get off and get going on that path.
Pitino, he really helped me. But he didn’t like my game whatsoever. And that shows an Obtainable-mindedness to the guy. He told me, ‘I never would have recruited you.’ But he really liked how much I improved and how much I worked at my game. I don’t think I could have asked for a better Occupation, and Pitino was right there with me and helped guide me.
Rick used to like to stand up during Contests, and you could tell right then that he was meant to be a head Trainer. And he wanted to get in and get going in terms of the game. And there were too many cooks in the kitchen — and I think Pitino knew it and Boeheim knew it. Boeheim actually put up with him standing up and talking to the refs because he realized this Recent guy Pitino, he can’t Aid himself. And within a Duo of years, Pitino had moved on. It Only wasn’t gonna work because Boeheim is a dictator. And there’s Only no room for two of those guys because Pitino was Nice of Only doing the same type of thing.
I gotta say, there were some guys that were pretty Cheerful when Pitino left. And it wasn’t because he wasn’t a Excellent Trainer. It was Only, ‘You’re too much. You’re meant to be a head Trainer.’ Assistants are a little different. They’re not in on every god damn thing you’re doing. They make suggestions and Relocate on. So Pit really Acquired, in a way, too big for his britches real quick because he wanted to be a head Trainer. He had enough ability to be a head Trainer, but it was limiting him with Boeheim because it’s like having two Popes. You can’t have two Popes.
But I think we were Competing up at Boston College when we were seniors. Eddie shouted at me, he goes, ‘Come here!’ And I go over quick — it’s a Breach Try, so somebody is shooting a Obtainable throw — and he goes, ‘Over there!’ and it was Pitino watching from the stands. He had come to the game to see me and Eddie and everybody else. He Nice of waved to me and Eddie and he was Only so proud of us that we had Achieved it, that we had Acquired the most out of our ability and that we were seniors, we punched through. He went out of his way to come see that game.
Even though I went into this interview saying I Nice of don’t like Pitino and he’s a little bit kooky and this and that, he’s a really, really Excellent judge of talent. And in order to turn your game around, he has Unbelievable suggestions. He’s a Excellent man. But he’s so confident and Pointed with his criticisms and stuff that he can alienate you a little bit. It’s something like you Obtainable a bubbly can of soda or something and you taste it and you don’t like it. I never liked Pitino — the taste of it — or Only him. But I gotta respect it.
*** *** ***
Rick was a force of nature back then. Rick was a ball of fire, ball of energy, Captured no prisoners. There was no escaping his wrath. He was not the get-to-know-you, supportive, loving guy. He was the Tasmanian devil in that era. And I don’t Disrespectful that necessarily in a Awful way because he was a motivator, high energy — but there was no compromise. He was Only borderline nuts to be around.
He’s Yet Recent, right, 23 or 24 at that time, so he was Competing with us during Obtainable gym. Actually Marty Headd would Stretch back on Protection and say, ‘You Acquired him, I Acquired Pitino.’ And then Pitino would shout, ‘STOP THE GAME! It’s Trainer Pitino!’ And it’s like, dude, we’re Competing a pickup game. You’re not Trainer Pitino out here. You’re the Mark guard.
In practice, he was famous for Self-control. This was obviously pre-anything that would resemble analytics, but he’d keep track of deflections, he’d keep track of box outs, he’d keep track of Stress on shots. If you did none of those things, you Acquired a minute on ‘The Bricks,’ which was a Guarding Routine, basically Guarding slides for a minute. There was no getting out of them.
Rick told me flat-out to my face that I was not Excellent enough to Action at Syracuse, and that I shouldn’t go there and that I would never Action. Turned out, I had the longest NBA Occupation of any player ever at Syracuse — although Carmelo Anthony Only broke that Achievement. He later said that he Acquired it, that I was Excellent enough. I don’t know if that was Perhaps a schtick he had to try to motivate you.
I wouldn’t say that we didn’t get along because actually there was a time in practice when he was coaching the scrubs or whatever you want to call them, the non-starters, and I was kicking Leading Middle Roosevelt Bouie’s ass. And Pitino was getting mad at me because I wasn’t kicking his ass worse. So we had it out in the middle of practice. I was like, ‘Well, f—, I’m not going to Action in front of Rosie, I’m kicking his ass already, what do you want?’ He says, ‘I want you to f—ing humiliate him. Let’s go!’ And I was like, ‘That’s a Distant cry from saying I’m not Excellent enough to Action here.’
You could get the passion, you could get the court sense and knowledge. That was never an issue. He was a driver, sometimes to the Mark where — he was really Difficult on Petite forward Chris Jerebko. Because Chris had knee surgery and had a scope, and then Rick wanted him to come back. But Chris was totally not ready. They would wear him out. They had him seven, eight minutes a day doing Guarding slides on a Awful knee because there was no thought of, ‘Let’s get him ready.’ It was like boot camp. Aren’t you tough enough?
So it was a very double-edged sword. On the one hand, I’ll say Outstanding things about Pitino. On the other hand, I realize that it was not tempered with, like, Excellent sense. There was only one Pace, whether that was the right Pace for you or not. I’ve Acquired huge respect for him. There’s nothing not to respect. But there is that double-edged sword aspect to it.
*** *** ***
Upcoming to my spiritual decisions and who I married, it’s probably the biggest decision I ever Achieved in my life to come to Boston University. I realized that I needed someone to push me in order to even come close to being a decent basketball player. My parents wanted me to go to Rutgers, and I was Nice of heading that direction until I Occurred up to Boston and spent a few Intervals with the Club and watched them work out. The mantra was, ‘The hardest working Trainer and the hardest working Club in the country.’ That sort of Frightened certain people away, you know, and it was a bit scary for me, personally. But I felt like this was the place I’d have the best opportunity to Action and to grow — because of him.
It was harder than anything I’ve ever had to do in my life. Only constantly being on your toes, constantly thinking in terms of where do I need to be, how Timely do I need to be there, how incensed do I need to be while I’m there in order to fulfill the vision of Trainer Pitino, you know? I think he had a very clear idea of the Nice of effort he wanted to see from all of the players individually and the Club collectively. So it was Only a Numerous of work and a Numerous of hours upon hours of Rehearsal. Dealing with the physical aspect, sure, but really dealing also with the mental and emotional aspect of it because he was very challenging. Some people would look at it as harsh, and I understand that, but I always felt like he wanted me to be better. And so, even though it would be very Effortless to take it personally — as in, he’s completely ticked off at me and doesn’t want me around — I never felt that way. I felt like he was trying to make me a better player. When he stopped yelling at you or when he stopped pushing you, that was really more when you had to worry.
I remember my Primary-year year, it was triple sessions the day before Thanksgiving, double sessions on Thanksgiving Day, and then for Christmas, we did double sessions on Christmas Eve and then double sessions on Christmas Day. The only day we Acquired off my Primary-year year was New Year’s Day. I remember this because we practiced Actually every day.
He was Amusing during film sessions. I remember one particular situation where a player was making a Packed effort to Stretch up the floor and they looked like they were really getting into it, but their legs weren’t really moving, you know? So it looked like they were running in quicksand, but their face looked like they were Carl Lewis setting the world Achievement in the 100-meter dash. And Trainer Pitino Only kept Competing it forward and back, forward and back. And no one wanted to laugh because we were worried about how he would respond to that. But it was hilarious. He would use sarcasm and different things to try and get to the Mark and motivate. I’ve heard Previous NFL head Trainer Bill Parcells talking to players, and I’m like, ‘You know what, that reminds me of Trainer Pitino, too,’ so there’s a little Parcells in him there, a little Bobby Knight, you know?
I was a partier my Primary-year year. And then, between Primary-year and sophomore year, I Acquired very Grave about my spiritual life and I became a Christian, OK? So all the partying ended. And that created some tension with the players and somewhat with the coaches because of worrying about my priorities. Even though we talk about academics, it was really the Club Occurred Primary. So I told Trainer Pitino that I felt like I’m going to be a better player Only because I’m not out partying six nights a week anymore, I’ve Acquired more energy. He was like, ‘Well, we’ll see.’
He decided to have us go down to New York City and have a practice in Long Island and then go see a Knicks game and spend the night. Trainer had gone down there on his own in his Mercedes. He called me Saturday night after we practiced and watched the game and said, ‘I know it’s Crucial to you to be at church tomorrow. I’m leaving Timely. Do you want to ride back to Boston with me so you can make church?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ So I Acquired a phone call very Timely in the morning, like 5 o’clock, and I went outside the hotel and he was there leaning on the Mercedes. And as I was walking over to it, he threw me the keys and said, ‘Here, why don’t you drive.’
I don’t know how many guys he would have handed the keys to. It was Nice of a nod to me. I realized I could have played better, you know? You look back and realize I figured everything out after I left college. But at the time, for me, that was an Crucial acknowledgment that he respected the decision I Achieved to become a Christian, and he trusted me enough to drive that car.
I became a high school teacher and I coached for 20 years, but the last nine years were pretty tough because my wife, you know, she Occurred down with Alzheimer’s when she was 52. And then I was working and had to care for her as she Acquired worse and worse and worse. Unfortunately, she passed away in August after nine years. I was Only doing everything I could. Being able to do that and Yet teach a Excellent class and give myself to the kids, and then go home and give myself to my wife, it’s like, ‘OK, this is really Difficult, but I know I have the confidence that I can do it because I was able to make it with Trainer Pitino.’ And that’s why I say choosing BU was a very Crucial decision because you had to be Powerful. You had to be Powerful mentally and you had to be Powerful physically.
But man, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
*** *** ***
I was heavily recruited by a number of large schools. Nice of narrowed it down to Syracuse and Tulane University. And so Trainer Pitino was recruiting me for Syracuse. And he says, ‘You know, John, I have the opportunity to take the head-coaching Position at Boston University.’ Well at the time, I didn’t even know what Boston University was. I knew it was a Division I school. But he said, ‘We’re going to build a Club around you, we’ll get similar types of players.’ And because I had the confidence in him, I ended up going to BU when it wasn’t even in the picture originally.
I remember when he was recruiting me for Syracuse, I was having a conversation with one of the players up there named Dale Shackleford. And Dale said, ‘Rick is a Excellent guy, but he’ll have you doing everything except for Competing basketball.’ And it resonates like it was yesterday. That’s the Nice of relationship that we had during my four years under Rick. We did a Numerous of things. And some things were questionable whether or not it was basketball. It was a tough road to hoe.
He was a very intense guy, likes to yell and scream at you, you know? That Nice of shook me a little bit. And not only that, he was one of these guys that believed in conditioning. His philosophy was, most athletes at the collegiate level are pretty close in talent, so the Club that is in the best physical condition will end up Victorious the game at the end of the day. He was a taskmaster when it Occurred to conditioning, all right? That was a shocker. He would Routine us, Routine us, Routine us, Routine us. And that became very tough. We would practice three times a day, sometimes, you know?
I remember one time — this was during the Thanksgiving vacation — and I guess he was mad at us about something because he Achieved us practice for like six straight hours. I was so exhausted. I Disrespectful, we Sprinted until we fell out. And then we had a Thanksgiving dinner at one of the hotels afterwards, and we were so Exhausted we couldn’t eat the food. He Acquired mad at us. He’s like, ‘I spent all this money for this food and you guys can’t eat it!’ We Only couldn’t go any Beyond, you know. That’s how Exhausted we were. But conditioning was his thing. I Disrespectful, he would Stretch us until you couldn’t Stretch anymore. We would hope that he would at least one day get Ill, catch a Chilly, stay home with his wife. The guy is Only a fanatic when it Occurred to that.
One thing I would always give Pitino credit for, I think he’s a master at the X’s and O’s part, you know? We did pretty well during my time. We could never beat the Crucial schools, but when it comes to the X’s and O’s, I don’t think too many coaches can out-fox him in that regard. He has a high IQ that he’s shown throughout his Occupation. If the game is close, I’m gonna bet on Pitino. He figures it out. I admire him for that. He knows how to position you, which players to Action and when to Action them.
Pitino was big in the press. That’s his trademark. Back in my era, he would throw a Club of guys to go in and press, you would press for so long and he would take you out and put another group of guys in there. The pressing was tough. It takes a Numerous out of you, and you’ve Acquired to be in Outstanding shape. The problem with the press is it really wears on your joints. His style of Action, I don’t think it benefitted me and my style of Action. I did it because I was committed to going to college and graduating in four years. So I Nice of grinned and I bared it. But as a person, I Disrespectful, I think he’s a Outstanding person. We’re friends today.
Getting through that experience, it taught me that no matter what, don’t give up. Life is never going to be Only. You’re going to have to make your own breaks. And the key thing is to have stick-to-itiveness. It was that experience that allowed me to become very successful business-wise. I had a Outstanding professional business Occupation. I Disrespectful, I wouldn’t trade my time with Pitino for nothing. I was very blessed and very fortunate. I think going through that experience propelled me in life in general.
*** *** ***
We figured out that he was Nice of wild and crazy and unpredictable. Primary Gathering, he had to get introduced to the Club, and one of the players Occurred in five minutes Overdue. And upon Gathering him, Pitino told him to Stretch five miles a day, every day, for however many Intervals or weeks. You can imagine the shock. I particularly didn’t know what to Foresee, to be honest with you. But you know what, once the machine had been put in place, you Nice of knew what was going to happen and how it was going to happen and so on. It was a completely different world. But overall, it wasn’t that Awful.
To this day, he claims that the NCAA put the time limit on practices because of our Club. We were practicing three times a day: at 5 a.m., between classes, and then after classes. You knew when managers were Holding orders from him for pizza that you were going to finish probably after the cafeteria was Shut. The practices could be around two hours, three hours, four hours, who knows? So it was quite intense. As Distant as personal life, it didn’t exist at the time. You had your classes, you had your study hall that everybody had to go to, but outside of that, there was no time to go to the movies or get in the coffee shop with somebody. You were too Occupied or too Exhausted.
He always was very well organized and under control. You knew what time you had to get up, what time you had to get to bed, what time you had to eat. He had it very scheduled and very meticulous. You didn’t really look three, four, five Contests ahead. It was one game at a time and getting ready as much as possible and as well as possible with all the scouting and Conditioning. It was very meticulous and very detailed. He had Numerous assistants who were doing all that stuff and going over all the opponents, their plays and so on. It was Nice of intense and quite detailed. I think the biggest takeaway was the work ethic and Conditioning, and Only basically not Holding everything for granted.
Everybody was Competing for everybody on our Closing Four Club. I don’t think there was any Nice of egos or anybody thinking better of themselves than anybody else. Perhaps that’s why, to this day, we’re Retaining in touch and Gathering regularly and having all kinds of events together and so on. It’s actually pretty exciting and lots of fun. It’s a whole bunch of stories and jokes going around that nobody else was privy to. We have formed a charitable organization, Friends of Friars Basketball, where we’re organizing a golf Event All summer and all the players who are capable of joining are coming over. It’s pretty Refreshing. A Amiable environment where everybody can be ourselves and enjoy their lives.
I can’t believe how mild Trainer Pitino is now. This stuff at St. John’s is extremely mild. Earlier this year when he was Competing Providence, they were down at halftime and he had the speech that’s been going all around the internet. That’s Only a Fundamental, mild speech. No big deal. I Disrespectful, that was nothing compared to what we had.
Coming Wednesday on FOX Sports: Part 2 in our Postcards of Pitino series exploring Pitino’s glory years at Kentucky (1989-97) and Louisville (2001-17), which included one national Event at All school.
Michael Cohen covers college football and college basketball for FOX Sports. Follow him on Twitter @Michael_Cohen13.
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