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NEW YORK — Celebrated at home for reaching 900 wins, Rick Pitino couldn’t help but think back about where it all began.
Pitino was honored Wednesday night by St. John’s after achieving the rare milestone last weekend, and the Hall of Fame coach racked up No. 901 when the 25th-ranked Red Storm routed Butler 92-70 at Madison Square Garden.
Moments before tipoff, a tribute to Pitino featuring a montage of his highlights played on the large video screens that hang from the MSG roof. St. John’s vice president and athletic director Ed Kull then presented the coach with a framed jersey at center court.
“It’s very nice,” Pitino said at his postgame news conference. “Been a long journey. My wife’s shaking her head back there. We’ve moved a lot. We started our career — I started in Hawaii, and (later) was Jim Boeheim’s first assistant coach. We lived in Syracuse; we left our Volkswagen in the parking lot in October and found it in April. And that’s a true story. That’s how much snow we had that year.”
The 73-year-old Pitino, raised in New York, became the fourth Division I men’s basketball coach to earn 900 wins on the court when the Johnnies rallied Saturday from a 16-point deficit in the second half for an 88-83 victory at Xavier.
The others are Mike Krzyzewski (1,202), Boeheim (1,116) and Roy Williams (903).
Pitino’s milestone win came against his son, Richard, the first-year coach of the Musketeers, making it a special day for the entire family.
“I enjoyed the other night much more — except the bucket of ice being poured on me, which put me out of commission for 24 hours,” Rick Pitino said Wednesday. “But, you know, I love celebrating with the players like that. That’s really enjoyable to me.”
He is 901-316 overall in 38 seasons as a college head coach, beginning with six games in an interim role at Hawaii in 1976. However, the NCAA credits Pitino with only 778 wins after stripping him of 123 because of infractions while he was at Louisville.
He also made stops at Boston University, Providence, Kentucky and Iona, sandwiched around NBA jobs with the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics, plus a stint with Greek team Panathinaikos.
“From there to today it’s been a long journey, and getting 900 is a nice thing, certainly. But getting 1,000 would be a lot better,” Pitino said. “And that means I’ve got to be blessed with good health, good players, and just keep recruiting. The better you recruit, the better coach I am.”
St. John’s, ranked No. 5 in the preseason poll, returned to the AP Top 25 on Monday for the first time since mid-December following wins over Seton Hall and Xavier last week. In both games, the Red Storm trailed by at least 15 in the second half. But against Butler, they led wire-to-wire.
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