The Many Lives of Rick Pitino
By Ignacio Zamorano
Staff Writer
Thirty-two years after his first Final Four appearance, it truly seemed like the end of Rick Pitino’s illustrious career as a college basketball coach had come. By 2019, Pitino, then 67, had been dismissed from his longtime post as head coach of the Louisville Cardinals two years prior; the national championship he had brought to the school in 2013, its first since 1986, had just been vacated by the NCAA for the program’s “pay for play” scheme—perforating collegiate athletics’ façade of amateurism.
Following his dismissal from the program in 2017, came his years in the wilderness. Pitino’s path of least resistance would have been retirement; he was already a legend of the sport with his two national titles (1996, 2013) and seven Final Four appearances (1987, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2005, 2012, 2013). Nonetheless, he took his craft overseas that very same year to coach Panathinaikos in Greece, marking his first coaching job outside the U.S. in his career that, by then, spanned more than four decades.
After a relatively successful short tenure—winning the Greek Basket League in 2019—came COVID. One of the many developments of March 2020 was the opening of the head coaching job at Iona College, which Pitino took, marking his return to college basketball. Iona, a mid-majo,r represented a major step down from Pitino’s former post at Louisville but it gave him the opportunity to return to the game he loves—imagine Pep Guardiola coming back from a scandal to coach a side that is on the relegation battle in one of Europe’s top leagues for comparison.
In his first season there, 2020-21, he took the Gaels to the NCAA Tournament—March Madness—through an inspired run in the MAAC Tournament, winning it with four upsets along the way. He parlayed his success at Iona into the St. John’s job, a program where he arrived for the 2023-24 season. The Johnnies, one of college basketball’s most storied programs, had faced continuous decline over the 21st century, with only one March Madness appearance in the decade preceding his arrival at Queens. The Johnnies went 18-15 and missed the Tournament in the last season before Pitino’s arrival.
This season, his second season at the school, his team went 31-5, winning the Big East and earning themselves a #2 seed at the NCAA Tournament. Thursday, March 20th, 2025, marked the end of Pitino’s wilderness years. In his trademark immaculate all-white suit, he once again stood on the sidelines in an NCAA Tournament. His Johnnies were dominant in the first round of the Tournament, beating #15 Omaha 83-53. Nonetheless, his run, which had returned the luster they once had to St. John’s home games at Madison Square Garden, ended in the Tournament’s second round. The Johnnies faced a more talented team in #10 Arkansas, which upset them 75-66, bringing their season to an end. They had an atrocious shooting night, shooting 28% from the field and a measly 9% from behind the arc, perhaps displaying how Pitino’s will and experience took a roster that had no business, in matters of talent, being that successful to St. John’s first Big East title in twenty-five years.
Pitino’s tactics over the years haven’t always been precisely scrupulous, though sports will always have space for winners. There’ll always be a space in the kaleidoscopic landscape of college basketball for The Godfather, with his brash media appearances and his all-white tailored suits.