Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic <\/p>\n
On Saturday night, St. John\u2019s University basketball ended a 25-year drought, clinching the Big East Tournament.<\/p>\n
As the team cut down the nets in celebration \u2014 of their title and a miraculous two-year turnaround under Coach Rick Pitino \u2014\u00a0Mike Repole watched in awe from the floor at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n
Headed to the airport after the game, the Queens native\u2019s journey was lit by the Empire State Building done up in the school\u2019s red and white.<\/p>\n
The display was both poetic and undeniable. St. John\u2019s is back.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was amazing,\u201d Repole, who graduated from the school in 1991, told me. \u201cDid I know how I was gonna feel? Did I know how New York was gonna feel? Did I know how it was going to make other people feel? I had no idea.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKirsten Fleming<\/p>\n
Repole\u2019s not just any fan, though. The self-made billionaire has donated at least seven figures to this year\u2019s team and incentivized other faithful to open their pocketbooks.<\/p>\n
His money made it possible for Coach Rick Pitino to recruit athletes like Kadary Richmond and RJ Luis. Few have been as pivotal \u2014 or visible \u2014 as Repole, 55, in this wild new era of college sports, where student athletes are able to be compensated under NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) rules and move freely to other schools through the transfer portal.<\/p>\n
St. John\u2019s reportedly has an NIL payroll of around\u00a0$4 million, believed to be No. 1 in the Big East.<\/p>\n
\u201cCollege sports has always been a business. Now it\u2019s being shared in different ways,\u201d said Repole about turning himself into St. John\u2019s human ATM.<\/p>\n
But his support, he insists, is \u201cnot transactional.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nope. This is personal for him. Growing up in Middle Village, he dreamed of being the GM of the Mets or the coach of St. John\u2019s \u2014\u00a0which, for decades, was a vaunted but gritty program under stars like Chris Mullin and Mark Jackson and legendary coach Lou Carnesseca.<\/p>\n
Instead, the first-generation American \u2014 Repole\u2019s parents are Italian immigrants\u2014 studied sports management and became an entrepreneur, founding beverage brands like Vitamin Water and Bodyarmor, both of which he sold to Coca-Cola, for $4.1 and $5.6 billion, respectively.<\/p>\n
Not that he carries himself as a showy billionaire.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of wearing Tom Ford I dress like Adam Sandler. And I\u2019m happy with it. I\u2019ve got the same friends for 45 years. I call my parents every night,\u201d said Repole.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s always been a Johnnies fan, but he\u2019s never held back his frustration over the school\u2019s leadership during their time in the desert. (This is a man who owns an apparel brand called Nobull, after all.)<\/p>\n
In a 2019 call with WFAN\u2019s Mike Francesca, Repole lambasted school officials as they searched for a coach after parting ways with Chris Mullin \u2014\u00a0dubbing them \u201cincompetent, clueless.\u201d<\/p>\n
He phoned in, he says, not as a billionaire booster, but as Mike from Middle Village, dishing out tough love \u201cfrom the heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2021, a much-needed change came when Father Brian Shanley, formerly of Providence College, was hired as president and made a bold move. He hired Pitino.<\/p>\n
The legendary coach came with baggage. A sordid 2009 criminal case revealed a woman had tried to extort him for sex and he had paid for her to have an abortion. In 2017, his assistant coach at the University of Louisville was found guilty in a sex-for-play scandal \u2014\u00a0leading to the team\u2019s 2013 championship title being vacated. (Pitino was later cleared in the federal investigation.)<\/p>\n
But Shanley was willing to take a chance, and Repole and his wallet happily rejoined the fold.<\/p>\n
As for how much he\u2019s willing to keep spending,\u00a0the billionaire told The Post: \u201cI\u2019m going to commit whatever it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n
His other passion is the ponies, and he\u2019s taken 10 of them to the Kentucky Derby. But nothing has rejuvenated Repole like the Red Storm, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t get any younger this year but I got a lot more youthful,\u201d he said of this season. \u201cIt brought me back to a simpler time \u2026 the ability to come back and just feel New York again and feel what I felt as a kid? It\u2019s giving me chills.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t had this feeling in New York in a long, long time,\u201d said Repole, who moved to Florida five years ago.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s not alone. There\u2019s the 75-year-old who stopped Repole on the street to thank him, stories of old friends who are now reuniting for trips to MSG, and multiple generations of family members bonding over the Johnnies \u2014 including his 84-year-old father and 9-year-old daughter, Gioia.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s me: a lifelong St John\u2019s fan who has remained defiantly red, even though my beloved alma mater, Providence, is a conference rival. Oh boy, I couldn\u2019t stop thanking him.<\/p>\n
In my 21 years at The Post, there has never been a demand for St. John\u2019s stories to move out of the sports pages.<\/p>\n
But this season, their comeback has both ruled the backpage and captured the zeitgeist. The Big East champs regularly sold out Madison Square Garden. Spike Lee has been courtside. Earlier this month, when Pitino was on \u201cThe Tonight Show,\u201d Jimmy Fallon and the team even performed a now viral Red Storm-themed sea shanty.<\/p>\n
The buzz is palpable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re the Kardashians of college basketball,\u201d Repole said with a laugh. But there\u2019s no filler or filters. This team\u2019s grit, passion and relentless defense is 100% authentic.<\/p>\n
He credits Pitino\u2019s no excuses coaching style. And the good Catholic boy, who regularly invokes Padre Pio, can\u2019t forget the heavenly assist from the program\u2019s patriarch, Carnesecca \u2014\u00a0who died in November, a month shy of his 100th birthday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s almost like he wasn\u2019t ready to go until the team was in the right place. And finally after 25 years, the team is in the right place,\u201d said Repole, adding that Looie \u201chas been here the whole time\u201d watching.<\/p>\n
Up next is the Big Dance. St. John\u2019s, the West\u2019s No. 2, seed will take on Omaha in Providence on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
Recalling his teen years sitting in the fabled blue seats of MSG\u2019s nosebleed section, Repole joked there was just one problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I\u2019ve spent the whole tournament either first or second row, you know, with Rick walking in front of me,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s my biggest complaint. He blocks my view.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man whose guiding mantra is \u201cthink big, dream bigger\u201d has a new one for March Madness: \u201cWhy not us?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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