NEW YORK — Rick Pitino’s return to Lexington — to coach a basketball game — seems to no longer be happening.
At Big East basketball media day Wednesday at Madison Square Garden, the former Kentucky and current St. John’s basketball coach said the highly anticipated home-and-home series between the Wildcats and Red Storm is off. Adam Zagoria of NJ.com was the first to report.
“I don’t think it’s going to happen now because they want to skip a year,” Pitino told NJ.com.
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The home-and-home series between Kentucky and St. John’s was first teased by first-year Kentucky coach Mark Pope at his introductory news conference on April 15. Pitino accepted his former player’s “challenge” less than 24 hours later. The first leg of the home-and-home was supposed to take place at Rupp Arena in 2025-2026 with the return game the year after, at Madison Square Garden.
Zagoria, citing a source, reported Kentucky wanted to skip a year, as they couldn’t do a game in the 2026-27 season due to a need for a certain number of home games for season tickets.
Pitino’s announcement on the home-and-home series comes roughly two weeks after his trip to Lexington for Kentucky football’s home game against Vanderbilt. He was also seen at Rupp Arena the day before for Big Blue Madness, and spoke at Kentucky’s practice that Saturday, where his former captain is gearing up for his first season at the helm of the Wildcats program.
“I was supposed to go to the football game and then practice (came) up and I surprised him (Pope),” Pitino said Wednesday. He said that he was in Lexington for three days with Pope and his family, whom he said are “wonderful people.”
Pitino led Kentucky to a 219-50 overall record in eight seasons while leading the program to six NCAA tournament berths, five SEC tournament titles, three Final Fours and a national championship title in 1996.
The 2024-25 season will be Pitino’s second season leading the Red Storm, who just missed out on earning an at-large bid to the 2024 NCAA Tournament. The Red Storm were picked to finish fifth in the Big East preseason coaches poll on Wednesday.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Rick Pitino on Kentucky-St. John’s series: ‘Don’t think it’s going to happen’
