Rick Pitino

Richard Andrew Pitino (born September 18, 1952) is an American basketball coach who is the men's head coach for St. John's Red Storm.

He was also the head coach of Greece's senior national team.

Pitino enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1970.

At a listed height of 1.83 m tall, he was a standout point guard for the Minutemen basketball team.

Pitino earned his degree from UMass in 1974.

Pitino's college coaching assignments include Boston University, Providence College, the University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville and Iona University.

As a collegiate head coach, Pitino has compiled a 684–282 record, for a .708 winning percentage that is ranked 11th among active coaches and 34th all-time among all collegiate basketball coaches following the 2021–22 season.

Pitino 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.

Coach Bruce O'Neil was fired after the Rainbow Warriors' started the season 9–12.

Pitino led Hawaii for their final six games, going 2–4 in the span.

Pitino was the first assistant hired by Jim Boeheim in 1976 as Boeheim began his tenure at Syracuse University.

Pitino's time at Hawaii was marred by a 1977 NCAA report on sanctions against the program.

According to the report, Pitino was implicated in 8 of the 64 infractions that led the university to be placed on probation.

The violations involving Pitino included providing round-trip air fare for a player between New York and Honolulu, arranging for student-athletes to receive used cars for season tickets, and handing out coupons to players for free food at McDonald's.

He was also cited, along with the head coach, Bruce O'Neil, for providing misinformation to the NCAA and University of Hawaii officials.

Also in 1977, the NCAA infractions committee recommended that Pitino and O'Neil be disassociated from Hawaii athletics.

He has been the head coach of several teams in NCAA Division I and in the NBA, including Boston University (1978–1983), Providence College (1985–1987), the New York Knicks (1987–1989), the University of Kentucky (1989–1997), the Boston Celtics (1997–2001), the University of Louisville (2001–2017), Panathinaikos of the Greek Basket League and EuroLeague (2018–2020), and Iona University (2020–2023).

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 is considered by many to be one of the first coaches to promote fully taking advantage of the 3-point shot, first adopted by the NCAA in 1987.

In 1989, Pitino would dismiss the report, saying "I didn't make any mistakes, I don't care what anybody says."

By exploiting the 3-point shot, his teams at Kentucky in the early 1990s were known as Pitino's Bombinos, as a significant portion of the offensive points came from the 3-point shot.

Even now, Pitino's teams are known for the 3-point threat and all of his teams rank towards the top in 3-point attempts per season.

Additionally, his teams are known for their signature use of the full-court press and 2–3 zone defensive schemes, as well as their general aggressive defensive style.

Many of Pitino's players and assistant coaches have gone on to become successful collegiate coaches.

In total, 21 former Pitino players and coaches have become Division I head coaches, including former University of Florida coach Billy Donovan (now head coach of the Chicago Bulls), former High Point University coach Tubby Smith, Santa Clara University's Herb Sendek, UCLA's Mick Cronin, New Mexico's Richard Pitino (his son), Maryland's Kevin Willard, former Cal State Northridge coach Reggie Theus and BYU's Mark Pope.

Pitino led Kentucky to an NCAA championship in 1996.

He was the first coach to lead three different schools (Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville) to the NCAA Final Four, and is the only coach to win a national championship at two different schools (Kentucky and Louisville*).

* Vacated by the NCAA

Pitino held the tenth spot at UMass for career assists, with 329, until Chaz Williams (2011–2014) became the leader in career assists following his final season with the Minutemen.

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.

In 2013, he was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Louisville's national championship from 2013 was eventually vacated as well.

In September, Pitino was implicated in a federal investigation involving bribes to recruits, which resulted in Louisville firing him for cause.

On March 20, 2023, he was named head basketball coach at St. John's University.

Pitino was born in New York City, and was raised in Bayville, New York.

He was the team captain of the St. Dominic High School basketball team in Oyster Bay, Long Island.

In June 2017, the NCAA suspended Pitino for five games of the 2017–18 season for his lack of oversight in an escort sex scandal at the University of Louisville involving recruits.