PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rick Pitino is the first coach in college basketball history to lead six different schools to the NCAA Tournament.
But on the major stage, this is where it all began.
“It’s one of my favorite coaching stints of all time,” said Pitino, the current St. John’s boss who once led Providence to a Final Four. “It was certainly magical. I still talk to all the players all the time, and it was 1987, so a long time ago, but it was a fun time.”
Pitino returns to the very building where he orchestrated Providence’s magic — with his second-seeded, 30-4 Red Storm as the headliner of eight teams fighting for March Madness glory in 2025. But he’s not the only coaching royal roaming these sidelines in Rhode Island.
Between Pitino, Arkansas’ John Calipari, Kansas’ Bill Self and Purdue’s Matt Painter, there are 80 total tournament appearances and five national championships. Perhaps one of those coaches will add to the collective totals and start a march toward San Antonio.
What a legendary lineup. Or, as Self described it, a showcase of all the best in coaching. Self, Calipari and Pitino — in that order — are the active leaders in coaching victories.
“I can’t speak to everybody else, but I think the biggest key, and I think we all go through it, is why did you really get into the profession?” Self said. “You did it because you love the sport, you want to impact kids, but you also love to teach.”
Of course, there’s lots to unpack about the state of college basketball and college athletics as a whole in recent years. From NIL to the transfer portal, it’s not like it used to be.
“Obviously, Rick and Cal, they’ve been so good at it for so long, and we’ve been pretty good at it for a while, too,” Self said. “We talk about how everything sucks because it’s not the way it used to be, and there was probably some things about our sport that needed to change. We’re kind of in the middle of the change where there’s some discomfort, but I really believe the way that our sport looks today, it will look different in two or three years and will balance out. We just all need to ride it out.”
This group of incredible coaches being together has led to floods of memories. It’s a particularly high tide of nostalgia for Pitino.
His return to New England is a full-circle event, as the 72-year-old’s basketball journey includes plenty of time spent in the region, dating back to his days at UMass as a student-athlete.
The first school he led to the Big Dance as a head coach? Boston University in 1983.
Way back in the Hub, he crossed paths with the coach he considers his only true rival in the profession: Jim Calhoun.
“We hated each other at BU and Northeastern, hated each other. And there were 300 people in each arena,” Pitino said. “He goes on to coach at Connecticut, I go on to coach at Providence and we hated each other there as well. Today, I don’t think I respect any coach as much as Jim Calhoun.”
In Providence, there will be plenty more people in the stands, but underdogs, too, looking to see if Cinderella’s slipper fits.
Calipari feels a bit like one, bringing Arkansas in as a No. 10 seed that lost five in a row and six of seven at the beginning of SEC play. The role is not unlike what his teams played early in his career, both at UMass and Memphis.
“Some of you weren’t alive, but I’m back to the roots of the underdog,” Calipari said. “This was one of those years that was so rewarding thinking about not this — all I’m thinking about is where we were, threw us in the coffin, forgot the nails. We bust out somehow.”
The biggest Cinderellas of the group know what they’re up against with such distinguished coaches and programs alongside them.
“It’s definitely a who’s who of college coaching, and I’m sure a lot of people are asking, who the hell is that other guy in the bracket?” Omaha coach Chris Crutchfield joked.
High Point’s Alan Huss prepped for his current position during a six-year run at his alma mater, Creighton, where he learned from one of the nation’s elites in Greg McDermott. These days, he leads the Panthers to the tournament for the first time in program history as 29-5 champions of the Big South.
Come Thursday afternoon against Purdue, though, the past does not matter.
“At this point, it’s not about Cinderella,” Huss said. “Once the ball goes up, it’s about trying to win a basketball game, trying to be solid in all aspects and all phases of the game, and we’ll try our best to do those things.”
Just like the legends would say.
