Rick Pitino: 'All is Forgiven, All is Forgotten' Regarding Past Treatment by Louisville

Recently, the University of Louisville and former athletic director Tom Jurich were able to finally mend fences, with the latter being honored earlier this summer.

Could the same eventually be said between UofL and Rick Pitino?

In a recent interview with Jon Rothstein on CBS Sports' Inside College Basketball podcast, the former Louisville head coach, currently the head man at St. John's, said that he has put behind him the ill will he once had for UofL following his 2017 firing.

In fact, following the repairing of the relationship between UofL and Jurich, Pitino says that he would be open to returning for any potential honoring or acknowledgement by Louisville.

"I had a lot of problems with the University of Louisville, and there's certain things I'll never forgive that they did," he said. "But that has nothing to do with the present administration at the University of Louisville, because the people that I was upset about are no longer Board of Trustees. And I really wasn't upset that they fired me. Anybody can be fired. I'm okay with that. It was the treatment they gave Tom Jurich, but just recently, they named the street outside of the young of the practice facility, 'Tom Jurich Way.'

"So all is forgiven, all is forgotten. I no longer even think the slightest bit negatively about the University of Louisville, and I would go back in a New York minute. Everything's forgiven. Tom Jurich Way is up there, I really don't care too much about myself. My staff did some things that that I did not appreciate, and I have no problem with them terminating me at all. I've got to take responsibility for what happened, but I also take responsibility for 17 unbelievable years, three Final Fours and a national championship. So great memories, great place."

Pitino's comments come roughly a week after current Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey went on the very same podcast, and was incredibly receptive to the prospect of welcoming Pitino back to UofL.

"I don't have to welcome the great Rick Pitino back, this is his town," Kelsey said. "I mean, he can come back anytime he wants, and we would love to have him back. I think on most college basketball Mount Rushmore, Coach Pitino has always been up there. ... If there was any question from any college basketball fan whether he's on the Mount Rushmore or not, that's done. He might be the best in the history of college basketball."

Louisville fired both Pitino and Jurich, back in October of 2017 in the wake of the college basketball corruption scandal uncovered by the FBI and the Southern District of New York the month prior. The two were later exonerated by the IARP, but Jurich did not set foot back on campus until his honoring earlier this summer, while Pitino has yet to return.

In his 17 years as the head coach at Louisville from 2001 to 2017, Pitino guided the Cardinals to a 416-143 record, three Final Fours and the 2013 national championship. 123 wins, three losses, as well as two Final Four appearances and the national title were later vacated by the NCAA as a result of the Andre McGee and Katina Powell sex scandal.

Over the course of his 37 seasons as a collegiate coach, he has an overall record of 885-311, and was the first coach in NCAA history to guide three different schools to the NCAA Final Four (Providence - 1987, Kentucky - 1993, 1996, 1997) as well as the first to win an NCAA Championship at two different schools (Kentucky - 1996). He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013.