Color Rick Pitino as disinterested in Gonzaga men's basketball potentially joining the Big East Conference.
"100 percent, no," Pitino said in response to a question from NJ Advance Media after St. John's defeated Fordham at Madison Square Garden on Saturday. “I don’t feel like getting on a plane for five or six hours. Tell [UConn head coach Dan] Hurley he could go join their conference. But if they want to join for basketball only, hey, let’s do it.”
The somewhat condescending comments from the legendary college basketball coach came out after Big East commissioner Val Ackerman was in attendance Friday night at Climate Pledge Arena where the Huskies downed the Bulldogs, 76-63. Hurley told reporters the day prior that he was in favor of adding "another big-time program" like Gonzaga to boost the league's competition with TV contracts in mind. After UConn dominated in Seattle, Hurley reiterated where he stood on the matter.
"Maybe Gonzaga will want to join a really good basketball league," Hurley said. "I know commissioner Val Ackerman was here tonight."
While Hurley sounds on board for the move, Pitino remains against conference expansion that involves cross-country travel for competition. Spokane is roughly 2,579 miles away from Rutgers-New Brunswick in New Jersey, the third-furthest Big East school behind UConn (2,705.5 miles to Storrs, Connecticut) and Providence (2,764.7 miles from Providence, Rhode Island). In fact, 10 of the league's 11 members are over 1,700 miles away with the closest school being Creighton (1,375.8 miles from Omaha, Nebraska).
For comparison, the furthest Gonzaga has to travel in the West Coast Conference is 1,294 miles south to the University of San Diego.
But distance hasn't played much of a role in the latest conference realignment moves. Stanford and Cal will be in the Atlantic Coast Conference while Rutgers will be in the Big Ten with UCLA and USC.
Pitino has been against forcing sports outside of football and basketball to travel due to conference realignment, which could explain why he might be for Gonzaga joining the Big East as a basketball-only member.
At Big East Media Day in October, Ackerman told the New York Post that she remains in touch with Gonzaga, which has also been linked to the Big 12.
“There’s no better fit for Gonzaga than the Big East," Ackerman said. "If you look at the kind of school they are, basketball focus, their enrollment, their budget, it’s totally on point."
Ackerman followed up the comment by adding that the league's presidents have decided to stay at 11 members "for now", according to Front Office Sports.
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