Tuesday afternoon at Madison Square Garden, St. John’s introduced the 2013 Naismith Hall of Fame inductee Rick Pitino as its 22nd head coach of its men’s basketball program. Pitino, the now 70 year-old coach who spent the previous three seasons at the helm of the basketball program at Iona University, guided the Gaels to two NCAA Tournament trips in 2021 and 2023. He will take over a Red Storm program that has not reached the field of 64 of March Madness since 2015 and has not made the semifinals of the Big East Tournament since 2000, which is also the last time they won the tournament. Pitino agreed to a six-year contract with St. John’s.
In the thirty-one years since Hall of Fame head coach Lou Carnesecca, who was sitting front row at Pitino’s introductory press conference, final season with the Red Storm in 1991-1992, the program’s presence as a perennial power faded into obscurity as they’ve only made the Big Dance eight times and earned one conference tournament championship.
Pitino, when asked how soon he could win with the Red Storm, exuded with confidence stating “It’s not about when or if, it’s going to happen for St. John’s and it’s going to happen in a big way.”
Pitino is the first coach to guide three different programs, Providence (1987), Kentucky (1993, 1996, 1997) and Louisville (2005, 2012, 2013) to the Final Four appearances and the only coach to win national championships at two different programs, Kentucky in 1996 and Louisville in 2013.
