Rick Pitino Will Have The NIL Money Needed To Buy Portal Players At St. Johns, Thanks To Billionaire Booster

Rick Pitino took the St. Johns job hoping to lead another prominent basketball program to the Final Four and potentially raise a banner. As we've seen over the past few months, building the program has come with a number of road blocks, including the head coach himself. 

Currently sitting at 15–12 overall and 7–9 in Big East conference play, St. Johns will need to pull off a miraculous run to make the upcoming NCAA Tournament, which has caused the head coach to take out his frustrations publicly towards his players and the school. 

Not one for losing, this has been an adjustment period for Rick Pitino, especially in the New York City area. Every move he makes is put through a microscope. This was on full-display following the loss to Seton Hall this past weekend, where he called this the most "unenjoyable experience of my lifetime."  That did not sit well with his current players, or school officials. 

Pitino called his players ‘weak’, while also saying "We are so unathletic that we can’t guard anybody without fouling", before calling out specific players on the roster. 

Following the win over Georgetown on Wednesday night, Rick Pitino apologized and walked-back his comments, putting the blame on himself for what has been a tumultuous season in New York. 

"I immediately went into the team and told them, ‘I absolutely love you guys. I would never ever want to embarrass you. It’s my bad. I’m at fault.’ I should have never mentioned anybody by name. I didn’t mean it. I was trying to talk typical clinic talk like I do," Pitino said following the win.  

The Hall of Fame head coach has discussed having to put together a roster in a short period of time after taking the job, noting that he hoped to never have to do something like that again. 

Rick Pitino Will Need Transfer Portal Money To Compete Immediately 

Well, he received some good news on Thursday, from billionaire booster Mike Repole.  He is the founder of BodyArmor, and co-founder of products like Vitaminwater. He also owns one of the more prestigious horse stables in the country. In 2022, one of his horses, Mo Donegal, won the Belmont Stakes. 

But now, after a falling-out with St. Johns over the hiring of Mike Anderson in 2019, Repole is ready to help his school compete for a title.  No matter how much it costs. 

"I’m going to commit whatever it takes," Repole told The New York Post Wednesday night. "I don’t think there’s going to be any alumni from any other Big East school that’s going to give to their alma mater more than I can. If there is, I would like to meet him. I just want to make sure everybody knows that."

How much money are we actually talking about? Well, the billionaire posted on social media that he was ready to donate seven figures to the NIL fund for St. Johns basketball, which is another way of saying ‘I’m ready to buy a title'.

I think it's fair to say that Rick Pitino will have the necessary funds to find some of the best transfers from the college basketball portal once it opens in mid-April. 

After all the complaining that the St. Johns coach did this past weekend, its turns out that it will likely pay off when it comes to putting together a roster for next season. 

Maybe Pitino should've complained before the season started.