Louisville Report

Rick Pitino Makes Post-Louisville NCAA Tournament Debut, Nearly Upsets Alabama

The longtime Cardinals head coach made his first NCAA Tournament appearance following his ouster from Louisville, and nearly pulled off a massive upset.
Matthew McGavic|
Rick Pitino Makes Post-Louisville NCAA Tournament Debut, Nearly Upsets Alabama
Rick Pitino Makes Post-Louisville NCAA Tournament Debut, Nearly Upsets Alabama

(Photo of Rick Pitino: Patrick Gorski/USA TODAY Sports)

INDIANAPOLIS - The Louisville men's basketball program might not be in the 2021 NCAA Tournament, but former Cardinals head coach Rick Pitino came close to making some serious noise in the Big Dance.

In his first tournament appearance since his ouster from Louisville, fifteenth-seeded Iona fell 68-55 to the second-seeded Alabama in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday, but the Gaels had the Crimson Tide on upset alert.

Iona trailed 33-32 at the half, and maintained that one point deficit all the way up to 8:55 left in the game. Alabama finished the game on a 21-9 run, powered mainly by 20 points from Herb Jones. Isaiah Ross lead the Gaels with 19 points.

Prior to being hired as the head coach of Iona in March of 2020, Pitino spent two seasons overseas in Greece, where he coached the EuroLeague's Panathinaikos B.C. partially for the the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons.

Louisville fired Pitino, as well as longtime athletic director Tom Jurich, back in October of 2017 in the wake of the college basketball corruption scandal uncovered by the FBI and the Southern District of New York the month prior.

In his 16 years as the head coach, Pitino guided the Cardinals to a 416-143 record, three Final Fours and the 2013 national championship. 123 wins, three losses, as well as two Final Four appearances and the national title were later vacated by the NCAA as a result of the Andre McGee & Katina Powell sex scandal.

Over the course of his 33 seasons as a collegiate coach, he has an overall record of 782-277, and was the first coach in NCAA history to guide three different schools to the NCAA Final Four (Providence - 1987, Kentucky - 1993, 1996, 1997) as well as the first to win an NCAA Championship at two different schools (Kentucky - 1996). He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013.

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Matthew McGavic
MATTHEW MCGAVIC

McGavic is a 2016 Sport Administration graduate of the University of Louisville, and a native of the Derby City. He has been covering the Cardinals in various capacities since 2017, with a brief stop in Atlanta, Ga. on the Georgia Tech beat. He is also a co-host of the 'From The Pink Seats' podcast on the State of Louisville network. Video gamer, bourbon drinker and dog lover. Find him on Twitter at @Matt_McGavic

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