Syracuse Basketball: Jim Boeheim, Rick Pitino together at MSG – sort of

Syracuse basketball head coach Jim Boeheim and his former assistant, Rick Pitino, will both travel to Madison Square Garden on Dec. 19.

Syracuse basketball head coach Jim Boeheim and Rick Pitino go a long way’s back, and they are each slated to arrive at Madison Square Garden for some hoops contests this December.

But the bummer detail is that they’re not going to face off with one another.

Zach Braziller of the New York Post and Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports tweeted that Pitino’s new team, Iona, will go toe to toe with Stony Brook as part of a doubleheader in the 2020 Gotham Classic at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

The other match-up, as we’ve previously reported, is the Orange against Southeastern Conference member LSU. Now, given the novel coronavirus pandemic, it remains uncertain how the 2020-21 basketball campaign will proceed.

Assuming the upcoming stanza does occur, it’s also unclear if these duels in the Big Apple would include fans in the stands or not. Regardless, having Boeheim and Pitino, old-time friends and former Big East Conference rivals, in the same famous arena is pretty darn appetizing.

Syracuse basketball head coach Jim Boeheim and Rick Pitino have a storied history together.

Pitino, who served as an assistant on Boeheim’s first coaching staff at the ‘Cuse more than four decades ago, captured national championships at Kentucky in 1996 (where he beat SU in the last March Madness game) and Louisville in 2013. He’s also advanced to seven Final Fours.

While with the Cardinals, Pitino often had Boeheim’s number. His 2013 squad, relying on its signature press, mounted a massive second-half comeback versus Syracuse in the Big East Tournament title tilt at Madison Square Garden, the Orange’s final Big East tourney appearance before jetting to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The ‘Cuse would magically reach the Final Four in 2013, but it fell to Michigan in the national semi-finals. The Wolverines then lost to Louisville in the NCAA Tournament championship clash.

Pitino got fired by the Cardinals in October of 2017 amid the federal-government investigation into corruption and fraud related to recruiting within college basketball. Iona, located in New Rochelle, N.Y., got Pitino back into collegiate hoops when it hired him as the team’s head coach in mid-March.

LSU is a formidable foe for Syracuse in the Orange’s 2020-21 non-conference slate, although an encounter between Boeheim and Pitino – two of the sport’s coaching legends – would have proven tantalizing.