St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino calls to his players during the first half in the first round of … More
During his first season as the New York Knicks coach in the spring of 1988, Rick Pitino had plenty going on adjusting to his first NBA job. Still, when the University of Massachusetts asked Pitino to serve on the selection committee for its new men’s basketball coach, he happily obliged. After all, Pitino graduated from UMass and had an affinity for his alma mater.
Pitino recommended John Calipari, who had recently turned 29 and was an assistant at the University of Pittsburgh. UMass ended up hiring Calipari for $63,000 per year, while Pitino reportedly paid for Calipari to have a country club membership. Pitino had unknowingly helped give Calipari his first big break and started a rivalry that lasts today.
On Saturday afternoon, the men will face each other again as Pitino and No. 2 seed St. John’s meets Calipari and No. 10 seed Arkansas in an NCAA tournament West Regional second round game at the Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence, R.I. Arkansas defeated No. 7 seed Kansas, 79-72, in the opening game Thursday night, while St. John’s defeated No. 15 seed Omaha, 83-53, in the late game.
Pitino now has 885 career victories, the fifth-most all-time among Division 1 men’s coaches, while Calipari has 876 wins, tied with former Kentucky legend Adolph Rupp for eighth all-time. Pitino was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013, while Calipari was inducted two years later.
Saturday will be the 24th time Pitino and Calipari square off as college head coaches, including the fifth time in the NCAA tournament. Calipari, who turned 66 last month, holds a 13-10 edge over Pitino, who is 72. The men also split the four NBA games they coached against each other when Pitino was with the Boston Celtics and Calipari was with the New Jersey Nets in the late 1990s.
At Wednesday’s pre-tournament press conference, Pitino seemingly downplayed any rivalry with Calipari. Pitino said the only coach he had a “strong rivalry” with was Jim Calhoun when the two were coaching in the late 1970s and 1980s at Boston University and Northeastern University, respectively. Pitino said the two also “hated each other” during the 1986-87 season when they were coaching at Providence College and the University of Connecticut, respectively.
After Thursday night’s victory, Pitino was asked about those comments and why he didn’t mention Calipari.
“I’m talking about disliking each other,” Pitino said. “The only time with John (where the two were major rivals) was when he was at Kentucky and I was at Louisville. It’s normal. I’ve always had great respect for John.”
Calipari and Pitino faced each other for the first time in December 1991 when Pitino’s Kentucky team cruised to a 90-69 victory over UMass. In all, Pitino held a 4-1 edge over Calipari when he was coaching at Kentucky and Calipari was at UMass. Calipari’s only victory occurred in November 1995 when the No. 7 Minutemen upset the No. 1 Wildcats by 10 points in the season opener. UMass rose to No. 1 in the AP poll the next month and was 35-1 entering the Final Four matchup with Kentucky, which won by seven points en route to the national championship.
After that season, Calipari left to take the Nets job, while Pitino departed in 1997 to coach the Celtics. The two eventually returned to college, with Calipari landing at Memphis in 2000 and Pitino at Louisville a year later. For the next four seasons, both schools were part of the Conference USA, and men faced off eight times, with each winning four games. Louisville then joined the Big East in 2005, putting the Pitino-Calipari rivalry on hold.
Still, when Calipari took over at Kentucky in 2009, things heated up. In 10 meetings, Kentucky won eight times, including in the 2012 Final Four and 2014 Sweet 16. Calipari and Pitino coached against each most recently in December 2016 when Louisville won, 73-70, at home.
Ten months later, Louisville fired Pitino shortly after the FBI revealed an investigation in college basketball. Pitino was later cleared of any wrongdoing, but he was a pariah and had to coach in Greece for two seasons before getting another college shot at Iona University in March 2020. St. John’s hired Pitino two years ago.
Calipari, meanwhile, left Kentucky last April after 15 seasons. He had won the 2012 national title and made the Final Four in 2011, 2014 and 2015. But the Wildcats struggled in the NCAA tournament in recent seasons, including failing to qualify in 2021 and losing in the first round in 2022 and 2024 and in the second round in 2023.
Calipari’s first season at Arkansas hasn’t gone smoothly, as the Razorbacks lost their first five Southeastern Conference games and have been unranked in the Associated Press poll since the first week of January. The Razorbacks (21-13) finished 8-10 in the SEC, good for ninth in a loaded league that sent 14 of its 16 teams to the NCAA tournament.
Still, Arkansas has several talented players and showed their resilience on Thursday against Kansas, the No. 1 team in the AP preseason poll. The Razorbacks went up by 11 points early in the second half but trailed by three points with under five minutes remaining. They then outscored Kansas 15-5 the rest of the way.
Jonas Aidoo, a 6-foot-11 center, had 22 points, while guards Johnell Davis (18) and D.J. Wagner (14) and 6-foot-10 forward Trevon Brazile (11) also scored in double figures. Boogie Fland, a freshman guard, returned to the lineup for the first time since Jan. 18 and had 6 points on 2-of-7 shooting.
“I told our team we have not seen this type of size and this type of athleticism all year,” Pitino said. “We’ve not seen that. Creighton has a 7-2 center (Ryan Kalkbrenner), but (Arkansas has) multiple guys. Athleticism-wise, we haven’t seen this this year, so we know what we’re up against obviously.”
Pitino added: “If they finished eighth or ninth, what I watched today, I’m glad we’re not in the SEC because the talent level in that conference is amazing to me.”
St. John’s, though, should not be counted out on Saturday. On Thursday night, the Red Storm had a sluggish first half and only led by 5 points at halftime, but they then outscored Omaha by 25 points in the second half to win their first NCAA tournament game since 2000. RJ Luis Jr., the Big East Player of the Year, had a game-high 22 points, while fellow starters Simeon Wilcher (13), Zuby Ejiofor (10) and Kadary Richmond (10) also scored in double figures.
St. John’s (31-4) won its 10th consecutive game and 20th in its past 21 games, setting up Saturday’s matchup. To Pitino, it’s not about him and Calipari.
“I don’t go against coaches,” Pitino said. “We go against teams. (Calipari) doesn’t have to worry about me. My jump shot’s long gone. He’s got to prepare for our team. We’ve got to prepare for his players. He’s preparing for our players. John and I don’t play one on one anymore.”
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