Rick Pitino

Richard Andrew Pitino (; born September 18, 1952) is an American basketball coach who is the head men's basketball coach at St. John's University. 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). He was also the head coach of Greece's senior national team. 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.