Rick Pitino has been ingrained in basketball history for over five decades. After playing his college basketball at the University of Massachusetts from 1971-74, Pitino got his coaching start as the interim head coach for the University of Hawaii back in 1975. He’s since coached eight teams between the NBA and college.
Pitino has coached three different teams (Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville) to seven total Final Fours as well as two National Championships (Kentucky, 1996 and Louisville, 2013). In 2013, Pitino was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
Following a scandal the University of Louisville, however, Pitino was fired in 2017. He took a hiatus from coaching before returning to the NCAA coaching ranks at Iona University in 2020. After vastly improving Iona’s basketball program, Pitino accepted a job at St. Johns University in 2023…