Does Rick Pitino regret leaving Kentucky? – Rick Pitino is one of the most successful and accomplished coaches in college basketball history.
He was born on September 18, 1952, in New York City and grew up in the Bronx. He attended St. Dominic High School in Oyster Bay, New York, where he was a standout basketball player. After high school, Pitino attended the University of Massachusetts, where he played basketball and earned a degree in physical education.
After college, Pitino began his coaching career as an assistant at Hawaii and Syracuse before getting his first head coaching job at Boston University in 1978. He led the Terriers to their first NCAA tournament appearance in 24 years in 1983. After four years at BU, Pitino moved on to Providence College, where he coached for two seasons before taking the head coaching job at the University of Kentucky in 1989.
At Kentucky, Pitino quickly turned around a program that had been struggling. In just his second season, he led the Wildcats to the Final Four and then took them to the national championship game in 1993, where they lost to North Carolina. Three years later, he won his first national championship at Kentucky, leading the Wildcats to a 34-2 record and the NCAA title in 1996.
After eight seasons at Kentucky, Pitino left to coach in the NBA, taking the head coaching job with the Boston Celtics in 1997. He had limited success with the Celtics, leading them to just one playoff appearance in four seasons before resigning in 2001. Pitino then returned to the college ranks, taking the head coaching job at the University of Louisville in 2001.
At Louisville, Pitino once again turned around a struggling program. In his third season, he led the Cardinals to the Final Four for the first time in 19 years, and in 2013, he won his second national championship, leading Louisville to a 35-5 record and the NCAA title.
In addition to his success on the court, Pitino was also instrumental in the building of the KFC Yum! Center, a state-of-the-art arena that opened in 2010.
However, Pitino’s success at Louisville was not without controversy. In 2015, the NCAA launched an investigation into the Louisville program following allegations that a former assistant coach had paid for strippers and prostitutes for players and recruits. Pitino denied any knowledge of the activity, but in 2017, the NCAA vacated Louisville’s 2013 national championship and ordered the school to forfeit wins from 2011-2015. Pitino was also suspended for the first five games of the 2017-18 season.
Pitino’s tenure at Louisville came to an end in 2017, when he was fired following an FBI investigation into college basketball recruiting. The investigation revealed that a Louisville assistant coach had been involved in a scheme to pay a recruit’s family, and while Pitino denied any involvement or knowledge of the scheme, the university decided to part ways with him.
Since leaving Louisville, Pitino has continued to coach, taking over as the head coach at Iona College in 2020. He has also been involved in the creation of the Basketball Hall of Fame London Showcase, a tournament featuring top college basketball teams that is set to debut in London in December 2022.
Off the court, Pitino has also had a successful career as an author and motivational speaker. He has written several books, including “Success Is a Choice: Ten Steps to Overachieving in Business and Life” and “The One-Day Contract: How to Add Value to Every Minute of Your Life.” He has also given motivational speeches to corporations and sports teams, sharing his philosophy on success and leadership.
Does Rick Pitino regret leaving Kentucky?
It is difficult to say for certain whether or not Rick Pitino regrets leaving Kentucky, as he has not made any definitive statements on the subject. However, in interviews and public statements, he has spoken highly of his time at Kentucky and expressed a great deal of affection for the school and the program.
In a 2016 interview with ESPN, Pitino said, “Kentucky will always have a special place in my heart. It was eight of the best years of my life.” He went on to say that he had no regrets about leaving Kentucky for the NBA, saying that he had always wanted to try coaching at the professional level.
However, Pitino has also spoken about the difficulty of leaving Kentucky, particularly after winning the national championship in 1996. In an interview with the Louisville Courier-Journal in 2015, he said, “It was the hardest decision I ever made in my life to leave Kentucky.” He went on to say that he still had a lot of love for the Kentucky program and its fans.
Overall, it seems that while Pitino may have some mixed feelings about leaving Kentucky, he has largely come to peace with the decision and has been able to maintain positive relationships with the school and its fans.
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