I wouldn't have put it past him...

From the New York Daily News:

Whittenburg, the leading scorer in the 1983 NCAA Tournament with 120 points, vividly remembers the first time he met the man who would eventually become his coach. He and soon-to-be N.C. State teammate Sidney Lowe were playing as high schoolers in the Boston Shootout. After Whittenburg's Washington, D.C. team defeated a team from New York City, "this Italian guy comes up and grabs me and Sidney in a headlock and says, ‘I love you two guys and I'd love to coach you,'" Whittenburg said.

"Then he says, ‘I'm from Iona College and I'm thinking, ‘This guy owns a college?'"