West Region will feature 3 Hall of Fame coaches, another with consecutive national titles
Rick Pitino’s latest rebuilding project will take him to Providence, where he pulled off one of the biggest surprises in March Madness history by leading the Friars to the 1987 Final Four.
His road to another potential Final Four with St. John’s will be littered with some of the biggest coaching names in the game, including one who followed him during a successful run at Kentucky.
Pitino will be joined in Rhode Island by Kansas’ Bill Self and Arkansas’ John Calipari, putting three Hall of Fame coaches together in one site at the bottom of the West Region bracket. Add in UConn’s Dan Hurley, who has led the Huskies to consecutive national championships, and that’s quite a coaching roster in the West.
St. John’s opens against Omaha, while Calipari and Self will face off in a matchup of coaches who have combined for three national championships and more than 1,600 wins.
“I told my staff a week ago: you watch, 7 vs. 10, we’ll be playing Arkansas,” Self said on Sunday. “Ask any of them.”
Pitino has done what he does best at St. John’s by orchestrating a quick turnaround.
The 72-year-old coach pushed St. John’s back into national prominence in his second season, leading the Red Storm to their first Big East tournament title since 2000. Pitino had a similar impact in stops at Boston University, Providence, Kentucky, Louisville and Iona to become the first coach to lead six different programs to the NCAA Tournament.
“I saved the best for last,” Pitino said after St. John’s beat Creighton 82-66 in the Big East title game Saturday night.
Pitino had some of his greatest successes at Kentucky, where he led the Wildcats to the 1996 national championship and a Final Four the next year before leaving for rival Louisville. He led the Cardinals to a national championship in 2013 before being fired for recruiting violations.
Kentucky won a national championship in its first season under Tubby Smith, who spent nine seasons in Lexington before being replaced by Billy Gillespie. When the Wildcats missed the NCAA Tournament in 2009, they turned to Calipari after he led Massachusetts and Memphis on unexpected runs to the Final Four.
Calipari led Kentucky to the 2012 national championship and three Final Fours before packing his bags for Arkansas, where he led the Razorbacks back to the NCAA Tournament after missing the bracket in their last season under Eric Musselman, now USC’s coach.
“I’ve done this a long time and this may be the most rewarding season for me because they are a bunch of good kids that struggled early,” Calipari said.
Calipari’s career began as a graduate assistant at Kansas, where Self has kept one of college basketball’s bluebloods a deep shade of blue.
The former Illinois coach led the Jayhawks to the national championship in his fifth season in 2008 and added another in 2022. Kansas is the No. 7 seed in the West Region and Arkansas is No. 10, the winner potentially getting a shot at Pitino’s Red Storm.
“It will be a fun, competitive game,” Self said of facing Arkansas. “I know we’ll have to play really well to win and I believe they’ll have to play well to win, too.”
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