When Rick Pitino was dismissed as Louisville's head coach, it was unsure if he'd ever appear on an NCAA sideline again. Following Louisville, Pitino resurfaced as a head coach for the Greek team Panathinaikos in EuroLeague. He spent two seasons coaching in Greece before he returned stateside and in the NCAA as the head coach for the Iona Gaels. Pitino has been coaching Iona since 2020 and this season he has been mentioned as a potential head coaching candidate for various openings at Power 5 Conference schools. After Iona was put out of the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday by UConn, Pitino addressed the coaching rumors via Matt Norlander of CBS Sports.

Despite multiple scandals and infractions as a head coach in college basketball, Pitino is also a highly decorated coach. He began his coaching career as an assistant at Hawaii. He also had a stint as an assistant coach at Syracuse. Pitino got his first job as a college head coach at Hawaii when he was named interim in 1976. He's also had college head coaching stints at Boston University, Providence and Kentucky. Pitino has also spent time in the NBA as an assistant with the New York Knicks. He was briefly head coach of the Knicks as well as head coach of the Boston Celtics.

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St. John's basketball, Red Storm, Vince Iwuchukwu, Vince Iwuchukwu St. John's, Rick Pitino, Vince Iwuchukwu in St. John's uni with St. John's basketball arena in the background

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New Mexico head coach Richard Pitino and St. John's head coach Rick Pitino

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Rick Pitino (St. John's basketball head coach) as Paul Walker, add Kentucky basketball logo to head of Vin Diesel

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Pitino has won two NCAA championships as a head coach, the first in 1996 with Kentucky and the second in 2013 with Louisville. The 2013 title was ultimately vacated by the NCAA due to violations.