Rumors

On Wednesday night, Pitino threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the New York Yankees game. He then made an appearance on the broadcast and was asked about the job. Pitino didn't leave the door open at all. “Absolutely not,” Pitino said when he was asked about the Knicks job.

Clutch Points

Knicks Videos: Rick Pitino says he "feels bad" for Tom Thibodeau "He captured all of New York and captured something very, very special. A lot of us don't comprehend what happened, but Thibs is going to be well taken care of"

x.com

Jermaine O'Neal: "Rick Pitino was my guy. Shout out to Rick Pitino, man. He recruited me himself. Sometimes it’s just the assistant coaches—but he came every time to the house. He sat in my house and told my mother: 'Look, I’ve seen everything your son went through. I’ve got relationships in the NBA. They say he’s projected between 10th and 17th.' Then he said: 'We’re going to be good with you—and we’ll be good without you. We’d love to have you. But knowing what I know: Go pro.'"

YouTube

Rick Pitino: It's interesting, in my 40+ years I've never shown clips to my teams of NBA defense. Offensive sets and individual moves, but never defense. Until this past season. We watched the Thunder at least 3x a week. Their switching, loading up to help, and rotations are awesome. And they are still so young!!!

x.com

Rick Strom of The Rick Strom Show allowed Antoine Walker to reflect on the harsh words from Ryan that defined his career, pulling back the curtain on what it was like to be on the receiving end of such ruthless commentary. “The simple fact of the matter is that Antoine Walker is a punk,” Ryan wrote. “Antoine Walker is such an arrogant, misguided, yes, punk, that there’s nothing either M.L. Carr, Rick Pitino, or The Pope could do with this kid.” “His juvenile mugging is classless. It irritates opponents – yes, Antoine, people on other clubs really do hate you – and it embarrasses the organization.” “He is a classic product of the modern basketball system. He is an AAU baby who has never worked at anything other than basketball in his life, and who has only met one coach – Rick Pitino – who has ever told him ‘no’ about anything. He is arrogant and clueless about his profession.” “He is merely a punk who can play a little basketball. Join me in wishing him well at his next destination.”

Awful Announcing

Legendary basketball coach Rick Pitino’s office at St. John’s University was broken into by a pair of thieves who ransacked it for memorabilia, cops and sources said. Two as-yet-unidentified men ran off with $375 worth of goods, including a basketball and bullhorn, during the Tuesday burglary in Carnesecca Arena, where Pitino’s office is located a floor above the basketball court, sources said.

New York Post

Pitino himself is listed as making the complaint to the NYPD, sources said. He didn’t return The Post’s request for comment, but tongue-in-cheekily tweeted Thursday that he was most bothered with the crooks taking a bottle of fine wine that goes for $1,500 or more. “Really upset!” he wrote. “Taking my memorabilia is one thing but the 1985 6L Petrus Pomerol has me livid!!!” He later clarified the wine was a joke. “I would never keep that on my desk!” he tweeted. “Saving that one in a wine cellar to open after the Johnnies go to the final four!”

New York Post

Rick Pitino doesn’t believe Dan Hurley is going to leave Connecticut and take a massive potential megabucks offer from the Lakers. “What I’m hearing — and I have no [inside information] — is that his father [Bob Hurley Sr.] and his wife [Andrea] are very strong in his life and they don’t want to go,” Pitino told The Post from his box in the grandstand at Saratoga Race Course, which is holding a four-day meet which will be highlighted by Saturday’s Belmont Stakes.

New York Post

“I think he’s going to try it, no different than [John] Calipari tried it or I tried it,” said Pitino, who will be going into his second season as head coach at St. John’s. “I don’t think he’s going to take the job, but I think he’s going to try the pros some day.”

New York Post

The fan base expects Kentucky to compete for a national championship every season, to recruit No. 1 classes every season and to put players in the NBA every draft. Calipari was still excelling in the latter two categories, but he hadn't brought the Wildcats close to a Final Four in the past five seasons. Potential candidates: Billy Donovan, Chicago Bulls: Donovan was an assistant coach under Rick Pitino at Kentucky from 1989 to 1993 and eventually won national championships at Florida in 2006 and 2007 -- right around the time Kentucky reportedly pursued him to replace Tubby Smith. Donovan has been in the NBA since 2015 and currently has the Bulls in the play-in tournament.

ESPN

Reaching an agreement with the Hellenic Basketball Federation, Rick Pitino will serve in the field of player development for the national teams of Greece. His new role was announced on Wednesday. “The most important thing is younger players develop, developing into national players, not only for their own teams but for the national team in the future,” the member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame stressed on developing players.

EuroHoops.net

Nick Lattarulo: Rick Pitino in the house, got a loud ovation from Knicks fans! The Jonnies take on Seton Hall in the #BigEast Tournament here at MSG on Thursday

Twitter

It helps that Stoudamire comes to the ACC at a time when there’s a little more space to squeeze by. Not to discount the win against Duke, but beating Jon Scheyer reads differently than upending Mike Krzyzewski. Pastner laughs when he thinks back to his first three ACC games as head coach at Georgia Tech. “Home against North Carolina and Roy Williams. At Duke with Mike Krzyzewski. Home against Louisville and Rick Pitino,” he says. “That was my introduction to the ACC. What is that, like 2,000 wins and how many national championships?” Closer to 2,400 and nine titles.

The Athletic

He doesn’t regret leaving — Pitino won a title at Kentucky and reached the Final Four three times in eight seasons — but he does wonder what might have been had he stayed. As he reminisced about those two years, he couldn’t help but smile. “The Bad Boys won the championship; we were 4-0 with them,” Pitino said. “If Jordan didn’t take over Game 6, I thought we could’ve won the championship. But nobody knows that answer [of how long I would’ve been with the Knicks]. … I loved coaching them.”

New York Post