Personal foibles aside, is he wrong?
I agree 100% that coronavirus is a very serious threat and prioritizing student-athlete health should be the NCAA's 1st (and really only) priority...
I think doing away OOC-play is a good idea, to limit travel/exposure/spread of the virus...
Where I am uneasy is about Pitino's point about pushing back "the start of the season" to January. Granted, if you cancel OOC play that pushes us back to 'about' then, although considering the extraordinary circumstances I don't see why conference play could not be logistically rescheduled... The unfortunate fact of the matter is, his point about a "vaccine" by January is complete lies. There isn't going to be a safe vaccine by January. Period. Any "vaccine" available in January is going to be untested and potentially dangerous for humans. I understand we're in a pandemic and some people may be willing to chance an untested vaccine, but anyone peddling an untested vaccine is nothing more than a snake-oil salesman. Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't. NCAA players should not be forced to take untested medicine that could cause long-term health issues.
Lose-lose situation...
There's nothing in Pitino's suggestion about forcing NCAA players to take any vaccine, let alone an unsafe one, or even anything to suggest that he thinks January is some magic timeline where there will be a vaccine.
He just said that pushing back the timeline "buys some time" for a potential vaccine. Which is true. More time is good. Not really sure where you're seeing anything about forced vaccines or have the impression he's peddling one.
You are right, all Pitino said was it "buys some time" for a vaccine which is correct. I'm just following that reasoning to it's logical conclusion.
Any vaccine that is created by January will not have undergone any meaningful long-term studies into it's effectiveness or safety. I'm not criticizing anyone for that, it's just the fact of the matter under the circumstances...
With that in mind, I do not really see any difference between November and January* for when the season starts. In both cases, our best case scenario is an untested, unproven vaccine, which will be significantly less effective unless EVERYONE takes it (which would require forced vaccinations which isn't realistic at all)
*cancelling OOC play makes sense to limit spread via geographic isolation so if Pitino is just talking about that and we forget the vaccine point I agree with him