Rick Pitino. John Calipari. Two legendary college basketball coaches and Kentucky national champions will face off Saturday for a spot in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
Pitino, who’s in contention for coach of the year, has taken quite the journey back to the grandest stage of college basketball since being fired at Louisville, where he won a national title. He’ll face a coach he’s very familiar with, and the one who replaced him after he left the Wildcats.
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Calipari and Arkansas defeated another legendary coach, Bill Self, and Kansas to reach the Round of 32. The Razorbacks’ first-year coach who left Kentucky before the season is looking to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2018-19, whereas Pitino hopes to reach the second weekend for the first time since 2014-15.
It’s fitting that Pitino and Calipari are fighting for a spot in the Sweet 16 as they both look to revitalize their NCAA Tournament success against one another. Pitino’s path has been nothing short of wild, to say the least, and he has definitely showed off his coaching chops along the way.
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Here’s a look at Pitino’s coaching path, including how he got to St. John’s and his lengthy list of accomplishments:
How did Rick Pitino end up at St. John’s?
Pitino, of course, is regarded as one of the best college basketball coaches ever and is most known for winning two national championships and reaching six combined Final Fours at Kentucky and Louisville.
Two of his Final Fours and his 2013 national title are vacated by the NCAA, however, which plays into how he ended up at St. John’s.
Pitino was fired from Louisville in 2017 not because of losing, but because of an FBI probe into college basketball that named Brian Bowen, then a Louisville player, receiving $100,000 from Adidas to help secure his commitment to the Cardinals. Pitino has still claimed innocence, declaring he wasn’t aware of the matter. He later agreed he should’ve been fired as the leader of the program, however.
Just a few years earlier, Louisville was caught in another scandal as former Louisville staffer Andre McGee was allegedly arranging sex workers to meet with players and potential recruits. Pitino was set for a five-game suspension at the beginning of the 2017-18 season, although he was unable to serve the suspension as he was fired for cause after the pay-for-play scandal.
Pitino spent the next three years coaching Panathinaikos, a Greek professional team that competes in the EuroLeague. After a few years away from college basketball he was hired by Iona, which he took to the NCAA Tournament twice in three seasons before rebuilding his public image and being hired by St. John’s.
Rick Pitino coaching path
Here’s a full rundown of Pitino’s coaching path across his entire career, which includes multiple college basketball programs and NBA organizations:
- Hawaii assistant: 1974-76
- Syracuse assistant: 1976-78
- Boston University head coach: 1978-83
- New York Knights assistant: 1983-85
- Providence head coach: 1985-87
- New York Knicks head coach: 1987-89
- Kentucky head coach: 1989-97
- Boston Celtics head coach: 1997-2001
- Louisville head coach: 2001-17
- Panathinaikos head coach: 2018-20
- Iona head coach: 2020-23
- St. John’s head coach: 2023-present
Rick Pitino coaching record
- Career record: 885-310
- NCAA Tournament record: 55-21
- Final Four appearances: 1987, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2005, 2012*, 2013*
- National championships: 1996, 2013*
*Vacated by the NCAA
