« Reply #10 on: April 03, 2012, 10:46:31 AM »
Pitino absolutely deserves to make it based upon his college career.
Pitino holds the distinction of being the only men's coach in NCAA history to lead three different schools (Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville) to a Final Four. (John Calipari did the same, but two of his Final Four appearances were later vacated by the NCAA.) Pitino is also only one of three coaches ever to take his school to the Final Four in four separate decades
That distinction is based on the fact that he's a job hopper. I'd say that puts him ahead of people that never accomplish multiple trips to the final four, but a little behind people who do what he did at the same school. Just IMO.
He is a job hopper, but it isn't like he didn't upgrade. His first head coaching position was Boston U. He left there to be an assistant with the Knicks. He then became the head man at Providence, which he left to be the head coach of the Knicks where he actually was quite successful (he took over a 24 win team and in his brief stint won the division something NY hadn't done in like 20 years). He then left for the job at Kentucky (the premier job in college). He left that (again after a lot of success) to take over the Celtics as both coach and G.M. (the premier job in the NBA). He couldn't coach and run the team (and frankly I don't think anyone could) and thus wasn't all that successful and ended up back in college at Louisville, where he has been for 11 years.
Without the allure of the NBA hanging over him, he is still the coach at Kentucky (of course he might not have gotten that job if he wasn't the coach of the Knicks). I can't see Pitino leaving Louisville at any point in time. Not sure how much longer he will coach, but he will be there until he is ready to retire (at least that is my opinion).
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