{"id":76330,"date":"2025-08-12T04:34:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T04:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/76330\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T04:34:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T04:34:07","slug":"2-time-ncaa-champion-coach-says-hed-return-to-louisville-in-a-new-york-minute-despite-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/76330\/","title":{"rendered":"2-time NCAA champion coach says he’d return to Louisville ‘in a New York minute’ despite scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The St. John’s basketball team had a strong season that ended prematurely in year two of the Rick Pitino era. Pitino was named Big East Coach of the Year, and RJ Luis earned Big East Player of the Year honors. This was not only a positive development for the Johnnies as a team but also a significant personal milestone for Pitino, who set an NCAA record.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cRick Pitino is now the first head coach in Division I history to win a regular-season conference title with five different programs, per ESPN Stats Info: Boston University, Kentucky, Louisville, Iona, and St. John\u2019s,\u201d ESPN\u2019s Jeff Borzello reported.<\/p>\n

Pitino has done an impressive job adapting to the modern era of college basketball. He\u2019s shown awareness of how the game has evolved, particularly in recognizing the changing role of the point guard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no point guards anymore. If you find it, you’re probably describing a guy who can’t shoot,” the St. John’s coach said during a media scrum.<\/a><\/p>\n

In a recent interview with CBS Sports\u2019 Jon Rothstein, Pitino admitted that he would return to coach Louisville if the opportunity arose.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAll is forgiven, all is forgotten. I no longer think the slightest bit negatively about the University of Louisville and I would go back in a New York minute,\u201d Pitino told Rothstein.<\/p>\n

Follow The Sporting News on WhatsApp<\/a><\/p>\n

Pitino was previously fired from Louisville following a scandal involving a recruit\u2019s family receiving a substantial payment.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cLooking back on it now, I deserved to be fired by Louisville,” Pitino said. “Was I innocent of any wrongdoing? Yes I was, but I was the leader and I deserved to be fired. I need to move on and that’s what I probably have learned the most.”<\/p>\n

Several years have passed since the incident. While Pitino has expressed a willingness to return, it seems unlikely given the direction current head coach Pat Kelsey is taking the program. Still, the idea and possibility may always linger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The St. John’s basketball team had a strong season that ended prematurely in year two of the Rick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[402,398,400,401,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-76330","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-basketball","11":"tag-ncaabasketball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}