{"id":204094,"date":"2021-03-17T06:05:23","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T03:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/tom-abatemarco-loving-his-iona-experience\/"},"modified":"2021-03-17T06:05:23","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T03:05:23","slug":"tom-abatemarco-loving-his-iona-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/tom-abatemarco-loving-his-iona-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"#Tom Abatemarco loving his Iona experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Tom Abatemarco loving his Iona experience<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

Tom Abatemarco has countless stories you\u2019d like to hear. He\u2019ll share them, but you\u2019ll need to reach through the phone and twist his arm. You\u2019re in your late 30s, looking back at a fascinating career. He\u2019s 71, looking toward a more intriguing future. You mention his 21 coaching stops, featuring four Hall of Famers and one improbable national championship. The first-year Iona assistant brings up his current staff, the players, the administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the last story about me. Seriously, this shouldn\u2019t be a story written about me,\u201d Abatemarco said. \u201cI\u2019m old-school. It\u2019s about the players. It\u2019s about Coach [Rick Pitino]. It\u2019s all about winning and being a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abatemarco is entering his 12th NCAA Tournament, with the 15th-seeded Gaels. He reached the Sweet 16 with Lefty Driesell and Maryland. He went to the Elite Eight with Lou Carnesecca and St. John\u2019s. He was part of one of the greatest upsets in history, winning the 1983 national title with Jim Valvano and N.C. State.<\/p>\n

But he was out of coaching the past two seasons, living in a resort community after his latest run at Florida Gulf Coast. Abatemarco considered moving to California to be near his daughters, unsure if his calling would call him back.<\/p>\n

\"iona
Tom Abatemarco was an assistant with Iona from 1975-77.<\/figcaption>
Iona College basketball<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI was thinking about what I wanted to do, but I wanted to get back in coaching if the right opportunity came up,\u201d Abatemarco said. \u201cThis was a home run. This is the best opportunity I could\u2019ve come up with. \u2026 I\u2019ve not had more fun than I\u2019ve had this year working with Coach. I mean that with all my heart. It\u2019s been a special, special time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was with coach Valvano when we won the national championship and I\u2019m more excited now. I literally went by myself and cried after the [MAAC Tournament] because of everything we went through and my relationship with Coach. It\u2019s unbelievable what\u2019s happ<\/a>ened to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Long Island native started as an assistant at New York Tech, unsuccessfully begging Valvano for a job at Iona in 1975. At a local all-star game<\/a>, Valvano learned multiple players were heading to NYIT\u2019s low-level program. Then, he learned why.<\/p>\n

Abatemarco, who had worked as a teacher, received a part-time gig with the Gaels, paying 20 percent of his previous $10,000 salary.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we lived on top of [my wife\u2019s] aunt\u2019s house,\u201d Abatemarco said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t pay much rent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abatemarco\u2019s relentless recruiting enabled Iona to land program-changing star Jeff Ruland. While prohibited from making direct contact, the young assistant constantly left notes on Ruland\u2019s car windshield, helping beat out Kentucky and Indiana for his services. Ruland, who later coached at Iona, led the Gaels to their first two NCAA Tournament appearances and only-ever win in 1980.<\/p>\n

\u201cJeff put the place on the map,\u201d Abatemarco said. \u201cIona\u2019s a special place. The only reason I left was because I couldn\u2019t live. I was making $2,000.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abatemarco attracted future NBA talent (Dell Curry, Nate McMillan, Spud Webb, Buck Williams, Spencer Dinwiddie) wherever he landed, writing hundreds of letters per day to recruits. At a crowded Five Star Camp in Pennsylvania, he caught the attention of an \u201caverage shooter\u201d and \u201cincredible athlete\u201d named Michael Jordan by jumping into a puddle and pointing to his Maryland sweatshirt. Jordan followed the coach\u2019s car to visit the school on his way home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen someone so dedicated to recruiting,\u201d Pitino said. \u201cIf I go to the restroom \u2026 and I see him in the hallway, he says, \u2018Wait a second, I\u2019ll put coach Pitino on.\u2019 Every place I go\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abatemarco has worked at 16 different schools. He had a few cracks as a head coach (Lamar, Drake, Sacramento State). He had a six-year stop in the WNBA, a cup of coffee in the G-League and a stint as a broadcaster for the Sacramento Kings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a tremendous experience and I\u2019ve learned so much,\u201d Abatemarco said. \u201cI\u2019ve moved a lot of different places, but when I look back on it, my life\u2019s been really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abatemarco still works out twice per day, but the gym in Iona\u2019s Indianapolis hotel is closed. He shares his life\u2019s details, as he runs up and down an isolated staircase. He is short of breath, but he continues climbing.<\/p>\n

The end isn\u2019t near.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to have fun and win. That\u2019s all I ever wanted,\u201d Abatemarco said. \u201cIt\u2019s not I recruited him or him, that\u2019s the new generation coming up. I don\u2019t worry about that. If you look at my career, there\u2019s been some good players that I\u2019ve helped with \u2026 but I didn\u2019t get those guys. The head coach did. I\u2019m just a caddie. That\u2019s all.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love being in college coaching and I love being an assistant. I love recruiting. I love the game.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Tom Abatemarco loving his Iona experience” Tom Abatemarco has countless stories you\u2019d like to hear. He\u2019ll share them, but you\u2019ll need to reach through the phone and twist his arm. You\u2019re in your late 30s, looking back at a fascinating career. He\u2019s 71, looking toward a more intriguing future. You mention his 21 coaching stops,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":204095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/03\/tom-abatemarco-iona-2021-ncaa-tournament.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[97923,72026,81688,95874,97300],"class_list":["post-204094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-3-16-21","tag-college-basketball","tag-iona-gaels","tag-march-madness","tag-march-madness-2021"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}