NCAA Basketball: Ranking the last 25 national title winning head coaches

Though synonymous with scandal in recent years, Rick Pitino accomplished something that no coach had ever done in college basketball. Pitino won national titles at multiple schools, building success at both Kentucky and Louisville. While those scandals have led to the vacation of Louisville’s 2013 title, Pitino still has an impressive body of work as a coach.

Pitino was a guard at UMass and began his coaching career right after graduation. He was named interim head coach at Hawaii when he was just 23 years old before being named to Jim Boeheim’s first coaching staff at Syracuse in 1976.

He got his first head coach shot at Boston University and made a Final Four as head coach of Providence in 1987. He spent parts of six seasons as head coach of the New York Knicks and the Boston Celtics, sandwiching his run with the Wildcats.

The highlights came for Pitino in the state of Kentucky. He led the Wildcats to three Final Fours in his eight years in Lexington, including the national championship in 1996. The team he built lost the title game in 1997 but won a title under Tubby Smith the following season.

After his time with the Celtics, he took over from Denny Crum at Louisville. The Cardinals would make three Final Fours, though the last two, including that 2013 title, were vacated.

Regardless of scandals and violations committed, Pitino was an excellent head coach who brought and built talent at some historical schools. His seven Final Fours (two vacated) are an impressive number, especially coming at three different schools.

His tenure in the NBA wasn’t filled with success, but he was a winner at every stop at the college level. Love him or hate him, it’s hard to deny Pitino’s success, though it’s remarkably unlikely that we’ll see him getting another shot as a collegiate head coach.