WASHINGTON, D.C. — St. John’s coach Rick Pitino might not have plans for his 74th birthday in September, but he’ll sooner consider putting them on his calendar than weigh the prospect of retirement.
Pitino has St. John’s back in the Sweet 16 with a shot at No. 1 seed Duke in the East Region semifinals on Friday. Win or lose, he’s exceedingly confident it won’t be his final game as a head coach. That’s because he already felt what it was like without basketball in his life for a few years.
“I think the lifestyle that I was leading was certainly, I shouldn’t complain about it. But I just missed it every single day I was out of it,” Pitino said Thursday as the Red Storm prepare for the Blue Devils. “So I realized there’s no reason to try and get out because I knew how much I missed it.
“I’d like to stay in as long as I can. As long as God willing is giving me good health, I’d like to stay in it as long as I can.”
St. John’s hired Pitino in 2023 and he enters Friday’s game with a record of 81-24 and a chance to make his eighth trip to the Final Four with two victories this weekend.
To advance to the Sweet 16, St. John’s knocked off Kansas in the second round. Getting to Indianapolis would require taking down a few more of college basketball’s so-called bluebloods. Duke is up first and the winner of that matchup draws either Michigan State or UConn on Sunday.
But Pitino, previously head coach at Kentucky and Louisville before heading to Iona, said the idea of bluebloods having any advantage over the rest of college basketball is history.
That means something coming from a coach who lost the “Christian Laettner Game” to Duke in 1992 at Kentucky and then won a national title with the Wildcats. And if you need more context on his perspective of the eras of the college game, consider Boston University gave Pitino his first (non-interim) Division I head-coaching gig when the 3-point line was only an “experiment” under consideration.
He said the elimination of bluebloods is great for the game.
“All that’s gone now. We are an offshoot of professional basketball. I look at it totally different. I think it’s great because I just want excellence on the court between the lines. I want to see great players, execution, coaching. We are getting that now,” Pitino said.
“For you guys in the media and me as a bystander looking at my non-coaching days, I want to see great basketball with great players. We’re getting that now. I think it’s awesome.
“I think the fact there are no more blue bloods, I think it’s great. Kentucky will always be Kentucky. Duke will always be Duke because of their great, the legacy they left in the game, the history of their game.”
