Rick Pitino isn’t the villain he once was when he wore the rival’s colors at Louisville and helped the Cardinals set a Guinness World Record for scandals while not winning the national championship in 2013. Maybe it’s time healing old wounds, or maybe it’s Chris Mack cutting wrestling promos and beefing with former assistants, but Pitino has slipped in the rankings of UK Basketball’s adversaries in recent years.
Since giving us the finger, Rick snuck off to Greece to live his best life for a year, only to come back to the States to “never coach again.” Soon after never coaching again, he became the head coach at Iona, a MAAC school in New York with rich tradition, and in his first season he won the national media back over by guiding the Gaels to the NCAA Tournament for only the fifth time in five years.