Richard Andrew Pitino is an American basketball coach who is the men's head coach for St John's Red Storm.
42 Facts About Rick Pitino
2.
Rick Pitino was the head coach of Greece's senior national team.
3.
Rick Pitino has been the head coach of several teams in NCAA Division I and in the NBA, including Boston University, Providence College, the New York Knicks, the University of Kentucky, the Boston Celtics, the University of Louisville, Panathinaikos of the Greek Basket League and EuroLeague, and Iona University.
4.
Rick Pitino was the first coach to lead three different schools to the NCAA Final Four, and is the only coach to win a national championship at two different schools.
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Rick Pitino was born in New York City, and was raised in Bayville, New York.
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Rick Pitino was the team captain of the St Dominic High School basketball team in Oyster Bay, Long Island.
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Rick Pitino enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1970.
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Rick Pitino held the tenth spot at UMass for career assists, with 329, until Chaz Williams became the leader in career assists following his final season with the Minutemen.
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Rick Pitino led the team in assists as a junior and senior.
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Rick Pitino was a freshman at the same time future NBA legend Julius Erving spent his junior year at UMass, although the two never played on the same team because freshmen were ineligible to play varsity basketball at the time.
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Rick Pitino's college coaching assignments include Boston University, Providence College, the University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville and Iona University.
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Rick Pitino is considered by many to be one of the first coaches to promote fully taking advantage of the 3-point shot, first adopted by the NCAA in 1987.
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Rick Pitino started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at the University of Hawaii in 1974, and became a full-time assistant in 1975.
14.
The violations involving Rick Pitino included providing round-trip air fare for a player between New York and Honolulu, arranging for student-athletes to receive used cars for season tickets, and handing out coupons to players for free food at McDonald's.
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Rick Pitino was cited, along with the head coach, Bruce O'Neil, for providing misinformation to the NCAA and University of Hawaii officials.
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Rick Pitino was the first assistant hired by Jim Boeheim in 1976 as Boeheim began his tenure at Syracuse University.
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Rick Pitino used the full court press for almost the entirety of each game, eventually leading the Terriers to their first NCAA tournament appearance in 24 years.
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Rick Pitino left Boston University to become an assistant coach with the New York Knicks under Hubie Brown.
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In 1985, Rick Pitino returned to college coaching to become head coach at Providence College after being hired by then-athletic director Lou Lamoriello.
20.
Two years later, Rick Pitino led the team to the Final Four.
21.
Rick Pitino became head coach of the New York Knicks on July 14,1987.
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In just two years, Rick Pitino led the Knicks to their first division title in nearly twenty years.
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Rick Pitino resigned from the Knicks on May 30,1989.
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Rick Pitino quickly restored Kentucky's reputation and performance, leading his second school to the Final Four in the 1993 NCAA tournament, and winning a national title in the 1996 NCAA tournament, Kentucky's 6th NCAA Championship.
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Rick Pitino's fast-paced teams at Kentucky were favorites of the school's fans, implementing his signature style of full-court pressure defense.
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Rick Pitino returned to the NBA in 1997 when the Boston Celtics hired him as head coach on May 6,1997.
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Rick Pitino's remarks became a cornerstone of Celtics lore, and has served as a metaphor for other sports franchises and their inability to relive past successes.
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Rick Pitino himself reprised the speech in a tongue-in-cheek manner at Louisville in November 2005, challenging his freshmen players to play as tough as past seniors and drawing laughter from sportswriters in a postgame press conference.
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In 2012, Rick Pitino coached the Cardinals to the Big East tournament championship and a berth as No 4 seed in the West region of the NCAA tournament.
30.
On September 18,2019, nearly two years after his dismissal and his lawsuit for $38.7 million against the ULAA, Rick Pitino settled with the university and dropped the case.
31.
On November 26,2019, Rick Pitino was rehired by Panathinaikos as the team's head coach on a two-year deal after the firing of Argyris Pedoulakis.
32.
On March 14,2020, Rick Pitino was named head coach of Iona College after Tim Cluess stepped down from the position due to health issues on March 13.
33.
On March 20,2023, Rick Pitino was named the head coach of St John's, just a week after Mike Anderson was fired after four years.
34.
On December 20,2010, Rick Pitino was hired as head coach of the senior Puerto Rico national team.
35.
Rick Pitino coached the Puerto Rican national team at the 2015 FIBA Americas Championship, in Mexico City, Mexico.
36.
On November 8,2019, Rick Pitino was hired as head coach of Greece's senior national team.
37.
The Hellenic Basketball Federation announced that Rick Pitino would be Greece's head coach at the 2020 FIBA Victoria Olympic qualifying tournament and the 2020 Summer Olympics, should Greece qualify, while Thanasis Skourtopoulos would serve as Greece's head coach for the 2021 EuroBasket qualification tournament.
38.
Rick Pitino is the author of a motivational self-help book named Success is a Choice.
39.
Rick Pitino published an autobiography in 1988 entitled Born to Coach, describing his life up until his time with the Knicks.
40.
Beyond basketball, Rick Pitino has been involved in the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing as the lead partner in Celtic Pride Stable and the Ol Memorial Stable.
41.
Rick Pitino was eventually sentenced to 87 months in prison.
42.
Rick Pitino later expressed "exceptional remorse and contrition regarding her commission of her offenses".