Rick Pitino

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Lore & Background

Pitino led Kentucky to an NCAA championship in 1996. In 2013, his Louisville team won the national championship and he was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. In June 2017, the NCAA suspended Pitino for five games of the 2017–18 season for a perceived lack of oversight in an escort sex scandal at the University of Louisville involving recruits. Louisville's national championship from 2013 was eventually vacated, and the university's appeal was denied. In September, Pitino was implicated in a separate federal investigation involving bribes to recruits, which resulted in Louisville firing him for cause. He soon returned to coaching after a brief stint as a broadcaster, and was later exonerated of the bribery accusation. On March 20, 2023, he was named head basketball coach at St. John's University. Since taking over at St. John's, Pitino has led the program to back-to-back Big East regular season and tournament championships in 2025 and 2026.

In Their Own Story

The air inside Gund Arena was thick with anticipation as the clock ticked under ten seconds in Game 7 of the 1989 playoffs. Rick Pitino stood on the sideline, his signature intensity radiating through the noise of the crowd. He didn't need to shout; his eyes conveyed the urgency. 'Trust the defense,' he signaled, pointing sharply at Brad Daugherty. The Cavaliers held their ground, executing a play drilled into them a thousand times in practice. As the final buzzer sounded and the team surged forward, Pitino allowed himself a rare, triumphant smile—the first time Cleveland had truly tasted glory.

Reader's Guide

Pitino was born in New York City, and was raised in Bayville, New York, on Long Island. He was the team captain of the St. Dominic High School basketball team in Oyster Bay, Long Island. Pitino enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1970. At a listed height of tall, he was a point guard for the Minutemen basketball team. Pitino held the tenth spot at UMass for career assists, with 329, until 2014. He led the team in assists as a junior and senior. The 168 assists as a senior is the eighth-best single season total ever there. Pitino was a freshman at the same time future NBA legend Julius Erving spent his junior (and final) year at UMass, although the two never played on the same team because freshmen were ineligible to play varsity basketball at the time. Other teammates of Pitino's include Al Skinner, who also went on to become a successful college coach, and baseball player Mike Flanagan, who went on to pitch in the major leagues and win the AL Cy Young Award in 1979. Pitino earned his degree from UMass in 1974. He started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at the University of Hawaii in 1974, and became a full-time assistant in 1975. Pitino served as Hawaii's interim head coach late in the 1975–76 season. Pitino's time at Hawaii was marred by a 1977 NCAA report on sanctions against the program. He was the first assistant hired by Jim Boeheim in 1976 as Boeheim began his tenure at Syracuse University. In 1978, Boston University athletic director John Simpson hired Pitino as head coach. Pitino left Boston University to become an assistant coach with the New York Knicks under Hubie Brown. In 1985, Pitino returned to college coaching to become head coach at Providence College after being hired by athletic director Lou Lamoriello. Pitino became head coach of the New York Knicks on July 14, 1987. He resigned from the Knicks on May 30, 1989. After spending two years coaching in the NBA, Pitino returned to the college level again in 1989, becoming the coach at Kentucky. Pitino returned to the NBA in 1997 when the Boston Celtics hired him as head coach on May 6, 1997. He resigned on January 8, 2001. Pitino returned to college coaching on March 21, 2001, to become the head coach at the University of Louisville.

Did You Know?

• Pitino led Kentucky to an NCAA championship in 1996.
• In 2013, his Louisville team won the national championship and he was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
• Pitino became head coach of the New York Knicks on July 14, 1987, and resigned on May 30, 1989.
• He was the first men's coach in NCAA history to lead three different schools to the Final Four.