Rick Pitino’s basketball resume is as good as it gets: Two National Championships, seven Final Fours, a trophy case full of Coach of the Year awards, including the John Wooden National Coach of the Year award in 1987 – and on top of all of that, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013.
Pitino has done it all, and now, in his second season with St. John’s, Pitino has the Red Storm as a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, following an incredible 30-4 season that culminated with a Big East regular season and tournament championship.
So as he prepares for the Johnnies’ first-round matchup with Omaha, Pitino is doing so with a stress-free mindset.
As Pitino told reporters on Wednesday, his days of ladder-climbing through the college and pro ranks are over, so why not have some fun with it?
“I’ve been blessed for a long period of time. Fifty-plus years of coaching. And I think I look at it this way – I don’t know if God will bless me with two, three, four more years, but if he does I know it’s gonna stop. So why not have a blast? Why not get the most out of it? Why not laugh, have fun, get great experiences,” Pitino said. “Because early years it wasn’t like that. It was you’re trying to move up the ladder, you’re trying to accomplish certain things. Now I don’t have to move up the ladder, I don’t have to look for another job. I don’t have any dreams of coaching elsewhere so it’s just fun. You have fun with your guys – it’s laughter, it’s all the great things, but I do know it’s coming to an end.
“I just revel in every single day of all of it. Being part of the NCAA Tournament is what college basketball is all about… This is our month. This is what college basketball lives for.”
The No. 2 seed in the West region, Pitino and the Red Storm are in the same bracket as some of the game’s most prolific head coaches, such as Kansas’ Bill Self, Arkansas’ John Calipari, and UConn’s Dan Hurley. In fact, Self and Calipari are going head-to-head in the first round, and the winner would play St. John’s in the Round of 32, should the Red Storm advance past the Mavericks.
But if you ask Pitino, he’s not thinking that far ahead.
“It really doesn’t matter. They’re great coaches, but I’m just concerned about Omaha, because this team is – their point guard (JJ White) would be a Top 4 point guard in the Big East, they have the (Summit League) Player of the Year (Marquel Sutton) at the power forward spot,” he said. “I’m just excited to be here, regardless of who’s coaching. It doesn’t matter to me. I’m very concerned about the talent we’re facing.“