Big East Basketball: Top 10 head coaches of the century (2000-20)

4. Big East Basketball power rankings – Rick Pitino (Louisville, 2005-2013)

For the sake of argument, we’re just going to come out and say this about Pitino. We’re going to give him credit for his vacated success near the end of his tenure, even if Louisville’s national title and other success have been vacated. The Hall-of-Famer has a full history, winning a national title at Kentucky, taking a Final Four team at Providence, and making Louisville a Final Four team before they even joined the Big East in 2005.

During their eight seasons in the Big East, Pitino made the Cardinals one of the conference’s best programs. They made seven NCAA Tournaments and won a trio of regular-season titles. There were two Elite Eight runs early, topped mightily by 2012’s Final Four and 2013’s national championship, though both runs were vacated as mentioned. When you include vacated wins, Pitino was 213-77 in those eight seasons and easily maintained Louisville’s trajectory as a national contender.

Pitino brought home this program’s latest national title, though clearly, this wasn’t the whole story. The violations and vacated games clearly put a black cloud over Pitino’s success, but it doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen. While Pitino and Louisville were in the Big East, they were a top program and showcased it on the national level. This isn’t to condone cheating or other foul actions, but few can deny that Pitino is a fantastic coach.