Rick Pitino reaches elite milestone after win No. 904 originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
On Monday, St. John’s coach Rick Pitino faced off against his son, Richard Pitino. This would become the second father over son win in 17 days. This win carried a little more weight for the senior Pitino.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWith his 87-82 win over Xavier at Madison Square Gardens was Pitino’s 904th win all time. That total allowed Pitino to overtake former UNC and Kansas head coach Roy Williams for 3rd on the all-time wins list.
According to Yahoo Sports, Pitino currently stands behind only Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski (1,202) and former Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim (1,116). Pitino will need to keep coaching for a while if he hopes to pass either Boeheim or Krzyzewski.
"I think my son's brilliant,” Pitino said on Monday. “I'm proud of him. I hate getting any milestone against him – but I go away tonight saying my son's a hell of a coach. ... To say my son's a great coach is much more pleasing to me than any number of victories."
Much of Pitino’s all-time wins came from bigger programs earlier in his career. Pitino was 219-50 with Kentucky and 416-143 with Louisville. Pitino had a less than impressive stint with the Boston Celtics, before returning to the college game.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementPitino won National titles with both Kentucky and Louisville. He is still the only college basketball coach to win a National Championship for multiple schools.
Pitino left Louisville in 2017. After a short hiatus, he took the Iona coaching job before eventually landing with St. John’s. While with St. John’s Pitino has a 70-23 record over the last three seasons. He is also coming off of a 2024-25 Big East conference championship.
Pitino has been a staple in college basketball for most of his career. As of Monday night, Rick Pitino is the 3rd winningest coach in college basketball history.
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