Rick Pitino is entering the 37th season of his career as a head coach in college basketball. However, in turning the age of 73 next month, retirement naturally continues to come up with Pitino.
Pitino addressed his future in coaching and eventual retirement in an interview with Jon Rothstein on ‘Inside College Basketball Now’ on Monday. He referenced other older coaches across sports that proved that, so long as he is willing able to do it, he’ll have what it takes to remain on the sideline until he decides otherwise.
“Yeah, you know, you hit the nail on the head,” said Pitino. “As long as you’re physically and mentally able to do it, there’s no reason (to retire)…As long as you have great passion, as long as you have great passion, you love the game, you love coaching.”
Pitino is already one of the greatest coaches in the history of collegiate ‘hoops. He’s top-five all-time in wins, with a chance to move into third as early as this season, with 885 victories while, in leading all six of his programs to the NCAA Tournament, being the only coach to win a national title at two separate schools with one apiece at Kentucky (1996) and Louisville (Vacated – 2013). That includes his latest, current tenure in turning around St. John’s at 51-18 (.739) overall the last two years while, this past season, coming off conference titles in the Big East and one of the program’s highest-ever seeds in March Madness to earn himself the honor as Co-AP National Coach of the Year.
With that, not even including his professional experience in the states and overseas, Pitino is going to retire at some point as an all-time great. It’s just a matter of if he ends his career in college with the Red Storm, pending what continues to happen across the sport as a whole, or if he’d decide to go back for another stint in Europe.
“I get asked this all the time – Would you want to coach anywhere else? Would you want to go back to professional basketball?” said Pitino. “I love the EuroLeague. I could see myself possibly coaching there again. But I don’t see myself coaching anywhere else in college basketball. Last year, two or three schools called me to see if I had any interest in moving on, and I said, nah, I don’t really have any interest in moving on because I’m really enjoying playing at Madison Square Garden. But, I don’t think I’d want to coach in the NBA ever again. It’s too many games. So, I think I’m pretty much (here).”
“You don’t know what’s going to happen landscape-wise. I wanted to go three years at St. John’s minimum. I wanted to try to complete my contract. But, I’ve got the three years in and let’s see what develops with college basketball, how much is it going to change,” Pitino said. “I don’t know right now.”
Back in April, Pitino gave himself three to five more years, which could mean he would at most finish out this decade. Still, all things considered right now, especially not knowing what else he’d do besides coach, he’s in a great place, and has even been reenergized in the job, with his present work in Queens.
“(St. John’s) is just a thrill for me,” said Pitino. “(Coaching) keeps you young. It really does keep you young. You know, (Richard Pitino) and I had a huge discussion the other night. He said, ‘Why would you ever retire?’. And I said, well, you get on in age. And he said, ‘Yeah, but, what would you do?’, he said, ‘You suck at golf. What else would you do?’…I said I agree with you. You know, I don’t know what else I would do. I think the blessing for me is, I was two years out of the game and, boy, did I miss it. Boy, did I miss it…If I’m without basketball, I think I would age considerably.”
“When you’re around 13, 14 young players? Like, I’ve had the greatest summer this year I could have,” Pitino said. “Professionally, as far as basketball is concerned, it was the best summer I’ve had in a long time because these athletes…wanting to learn so much about the game was so refreshing. These guys were absolutely great.”
We probably only have a handful of seasons left to see Pitino coach, specifically so in the college game. That said, as long as he’s able to, Pitino will stay on the sideline until the time comes that he can’t or won’t any longer.
“If you’re healthy, if you’re with it? Just make it happen,” said Pitino. “Make it happen.”
