Louisville basketball: Rick Pitino sends message during Final Four reunion
Former Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino shared a video message for the Cardinals’ 20th anniversary celebration of the 2005 Final Four team.
- Rick Pitino accepted the Associated Press’ Coach of the Year award, an honor he shared with Auburn coach Bruce Pearl, for leading St. John’s to its first Big East title in 30 years.
SAN ANTONIO — The gap in Rick Pitino’s resume when he left Kentucky to coach the Boston Celtics used to prompt hypothetical arguments on how many wins he’d have had he never left college basketball.
His most recent hiatus from 2017 to 2020 to coach professionally in Greece should provoke one too. What if he was never forced out of Louisville?
The Associated Press recognized Pitino as a co-Coach of the Year on Friday at the NCAA Tournament Final Four, an honor he shared with Auburn coach Bruce Pearl, for leading St. John’s in his second year at the helm to its first Big East title in 30 years.
It was a first for Pitino, who had never been recognized by the AP for the national award before.
At the age of 72, he’s showing no signs of slowing down, which is why he should have retired a Cardinal. Louisville was wrong to let him go.
Given the national championship, three Final Fours and three Elite Eights he reached at Louisville, his averages mean he would have again appeared in the NCAA Tournament’s final weekend with the Cards over the seven seasons the program was largely in no man’s land prior to this season.
It’s hindsight, of course.
Maybe the whole episode was just a matter of bad timing for U of L.
Pitino was long ago vindicated of the allegations that led to his firing. The NCAA’s now disbanded Independent Accountability Resolution Process (IARP) cleared him of any involvement in paying recruit Brian Bowen II to sign with the Cardinals.
Of course, now name, image and likeness (NIL) payments and playing time are the pillars of recruiting, making college sports more like professional leagues.
The firing violations of the past are more like hiccups in the present.
The Final Four is a collection of coaches who, aside from Duke’s Jon Scheyer, don’t have pristine records. Both Pearl and Houston’s Kelvin Sampson were slapped with dreaded NCAA show-cause penalties at different times in their careers for recruiting violations. And while their actual violations may seem silly now, in simple terms, it signaled the coaches willingly broke rules.
And Florida’s Todd Golden? No NCAA violations to date, but he was investigated by the university earlier this season for Title IX violations. Multiple women accused him of making unwanted sexual advances, which included sending photos of his genitalia.
He was cleared, but it’s worth noting that the scope of investigation centered around if violations occurred “within a university program or activity.”
I could go on with more coaches, but you get the point. No one can throw stones in college athletics now because they’re all built from glass houses.
Pitino’s clearly not holding any grudges against Louisville, as evidenced by his revelation that he’s trying to schedule a home-and-home deal where the Cards would visit Madison Square Garden next season and St. John’s would come to the KFC Yum! Center the following year.
U of L fans should be prepared to be a bit misty-eyed, or maybe even jealous, seeing Pitino on the other sideline. He doesn’t schedule games he doesn’t think he can win.
Hearing him talk about flying 18 hours round-trip to Milan, Italy, for a 48-hour glimpse at a couple recruits in action, his enthusiasm was hard to contain.
“Listen, I can’t be any more motivated,” Pitino said. “I really can’t be.”
A motivated Pitino usually means a Final Four is forthcoming.
At the least it means he’s not eyeing retirement anytime soon, like so many of his peers have recently. Pitino said as long as he’s healthy and can put forth the effort, he plans to continue coaching.
“I don’t think you ever want to short change the school you’re working for and just say, ‘Let my assistant coaches do a little more,’” Pitino said. “I think when that day comes, you need to pack it in.”
Louisville’s program appears to headed back in the right direction under Pat Kelsey. But it never would have fallen off had it stuck with Pitino.
Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com, follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.