Rick Pitino has resurrected his career at Iona and proven once again that his Hall of Fame coaching career is not over.

Now the Iona coach, who won national championships at Kentucky and Louisville, is seeing his profile rise again, and as March approaches, Pitino is a name to watch again in college basketball.

“I want to coach 5 or 6 more years,” the former Kentucky and Louisville coach told CBS Sports. “I still exercise like a demon. I still get after it. And as long as you do that, your mind is sharp, I’m still more passionate about it today than I’ve ever been in my life. And again, it’s because I know my window’s closing. I want to do something special, whether it’s at Iona or it doesn’t matter. I want to do something special, and I think we are doing something special.”

In November, Pitino was cleared by the Independent Review Panel of the Independent Accountability Resolution Process in the Louisville case that was tied to the FBI’s investigation of bribery and corruption in college basketball.

“It would have to be someplace really, really special with the type of president that I have here,” Pitino said of leaving Iona. “Now, it’s easy. I got exonerated by the NCAA, they said you didn’t do anything, now it’s easy to hire me. But (Iona President) Seamus Carey didn’t have that guarantee.”

Matt Norlander reported that Pitino’s buyout and his uncertain NCAA situation made him ungettable for most ADs even willing to entertain the fantasy. That’s no longer the case. In the offseason, Pitino went to Carey and had his buyout taken down to $0, making him easier to pluck. He’s in the third year of his initial five-year contract.

“I have no idea what the answer is about where I’ll be or what I’ll do,” Pitino said. “I know I love the place. I know I’m eight minutes away. I know I love Winged Foot. … I do know that there’s certain places and there’s 20 or 30 states where I don’t want to live.”

Some of those states are in the Big Ten, where Pitino said he wouldn’t coach after Minnesota fired his son, who now coaches at New Mexico.