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Rick Pitino came home Friday night.
Nearly three decades after he led Kentucky to the 1996 national championship, Pitino walked onto the floor at Rupp Arena and was cheered loudly by fans there during Kentucky's Big Blue Madness event.
Pitino, now the coach at St. John's, wore a Kentucky sweater in his return to campus. He went to Rupp Arena multiple times as an opposing coach at Louisville, but he never enjoyed the warm reception he received Friday night, an opportunity created when Kentucky hired Mark Pope, the captain of that Pitino-coached 1996 squad, in March.