There are very little things that Rick Pitino has not done as a head basketball coach. Seven Final Fours and two national championships speak for themselves— even if the NCAA only recognizes five and one.
Pitino is considered one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all-time and for good reason. He found success at Boston, Providence, Kentucky, Louisville and Iona, and won more than 70% of his games over the course of his 36-year career.
Only 73 coaches in history have a winning percentage above .700 and very few of them have coached as many games with as many teams as Rick Pitino. He is a living legend.
While the past is great, Pitino is only focused on the present. At 71 years old, his tenure at St. John’s will be the final chapter of his career.
Pitino signed a six-year contract with the Red Storm and hopes to accomplish three main goals, which he revealed to John Fanta of FOX Sports on the first episode of the ‘Pitino Chronicles.’ If all goes according to plan, his legacy will be three-fold.
First and foremost, Pitino wants to pack Madison Square Garden.
Not just with fans. With fans supporting the home team.
I want to get back to the days where, when you play a home game at the Garden, it’s dominated by 80% of the people from St. John’s and not the other school.
— Rick Pitino
Once Pitino gets fans in the seats, he wants those fans to enjoy themselves. That’s pretty cool.
Pitino hopes that his team will play in a manner that is exciting and inspired!
I want to build an exciting style of play that everybody really enjoys seeing. And when fans pay a high dollar to come to Madison Square Garden, they leave with a smile on their face and say “that was a great basketball game and I’m proud of St. John’s for the amount of energy they gave us tonight.”
— Rick Pitino
The third of three goals is exactly what you might expect. Pitino wants to win his third* national championship, as every coach does. St. John’s lost the national championship in 1952.
Pitino wants the Red Storm to rectify that result under his guidance.
It hasn’t been done at St. John’s and I’d love to see that. I’d love to take another team to the Final Four.
— Rick Pitino
Of course, to reach the national championship requires a run to the Final Four. Pitino knows that the dominoes will have to fall his way to get there.
It takes a little bit of luck to get to a Final Four. There’s always that one game where you have to get lucky. The bounce has to go your way.
— Rick Pitino
With that being said, reaching a Final Four requires proper coaching and recruiting. Once those two things are established, the rest will follow suit… or not!
If you have the talent, and you’re a little bit lucky, you can get there.
Once you get by that first round, it’s all even. There are no 1-seeds and 16-seeds any longer. Once you get by that first round, and the nerves are gone— now you’re all equal, let’s see if you can get there!
— Rick Pitino
St. John’s has not made the NCAA Tournament since 2018. Pitino will start there.
However, over the next six years, Pitino hopes that getting a bid to March Madness will be the floor.