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St. John's Reacts to Rick Pitino Announcement After Historic Season

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Max Escarpio | Last updated Apr 18, 2025 3:10 PM ET

Rick Pitino continues to prove that he's one of the best college basketball coaches in the history of the game, having had success with multiple programs throughout his career.

Pitino currently leads the St. John's Red Storm, who are fresh off winning the Big East Tournament title, marking their first conference championship since 2000.

After immense success in the conference, St. John's entered the NCAA Tournament as a No. 2 seed.

Following the season, in which the Red Storm suffered a loss to John Calipari and the Arkansas Razorbacks in the NCAA Tournament, Pitino was honored with a prestigious award.

St. John's posted that Pitino has been named the USBWA National Coach of the Year. They also shared a small note, reiterating Pitino's legendary status.

"Adding more hardware to the trophy case," posted the official social media account of the St. John's Red Storm.

On Thursday, Pitino accepted the USBWA at the awards ceremony.

Last night at the @USBWA Award ceremony, Coach Pitino was named the USBWA National Coach of the Year!

Adding more hardware to the trophy case pic.twitter.com/wskAmpBSeg
— St. John's Men’s Basketball (@StJohnsBBall) April 18, 2025

Pitino started his journey with the St. John's Red Storm in 2023. After a rocky start to his tenure in New York, the Red Storm soared to the top of the Big East and Pitino helped court the Conference Player of the Year, RJ Luis Jr.

This past season, Pitino was also named Co-National Coach of the Year, alongside Auburn's Bruce Pearl.

Before leading St. John's, Pitino also held head coaching roles at Kentucky, Louisville, Iona and Providence.

He began his coaching journey at Hawaii in 1974. Pitino has also made stops at the professional level. He served as an assistant coach for the New York Knicks from 1983 to 1985 and the head coach of the Boston Celtics from 1997 to 2001.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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