Rick Pitino Named USBWA National Coach of the Year

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – St. John's men's basketball Head Coach Rick Pitino was named the U.S. Basketball Writers' Association's (USBWA) Henry Iba National Coach of the Year award, the organization announced on Thursday.

Pitino becomes the second St. John's coach to ever win the honor, joining Lou Carnesecca who was named USBWA National Coach of the Year in 1983 and '85. Pitino will be honored at the annual USBWA Awards Dinner on April 17 at the Missouri Athletic Club in St. Louis.

Pitino, in just his second season at the helm in Queens, led the Red Storm to a BIG EAST Regular Season Championship and Tournament title and reached the 30-win mark for the first time since 1986. The Johnnies lost just four games by a combined seven points, tying the lowest margin of a defeated by an NCAA Division I program with four or more losses since 1938.

After tallying a 20-win season and leading the Johnnies to their first BIG EAST Tournament semifinals appearance since 2000 in his first year, Pitino, as he has done his entire career turned it up a notch in year two. The New York City native boasts a .771 winning percentage in his second year with programs and has won four regular season titles in his second season at an institution (Boston University, Kentucky, Iona and St. John's). The BIG EAST regular season crown, which St. John's locked up on March 1 in a 71-61 victory over Seton Hall, marked the third of Pitino's career in the league. He captured the title twice while at Louisville in 2009 and 2013. Pitino became the first coach to ever win the BIG EAST Tournament Championship at two different schools winning three games at Madison Square Garden by an average margin of victory of 17.7 points, the highest by a BIG EAST Champion since Villanova in 2017 (19.0).

Pitino returned five players from last year's team and welcomed in eight newcomers and developed three players- RJ Luis Jr. (All-BIG EAST First Team), Zuby Ejiofor (All-BIG EAST First Team) and Kadary Richmond (All-BIG EAST Second Team) into All-BIG EAST selections, marking the first time St. John's landed multiple players on the league's first team since 1986. Luis became just fifth player to be named the conference's most valuable player under Coach Pitino and the first in the BIG EAST. The junior joins Jamal Mashburn (Kentucky-1993), Tony Delk (Kentucky- 1996), Ron Mercer (Kentucky-1997) and Walter Clayton Jr. (Iona) 2022 as the only players to be named player of the year under Pitino. The junior has also been named to all four major All-American teams in the Associated Press (Second Team), USBWA (Second Team), NABC (Second Team) and Sporting News (Third Team).

St. John's went undefeated at home and won all 21 contests played in New York City for the first time since 1931-32, when the Redmen went 16-0 in home contests under Head Coach James "Buck" Freeman. Under Pitino, the Johnnies won all 12 games at Madison Square Garden this season, their second longest streak in program history. At Carnesecca Arena, the squad has won 14-straight games, dating back to the beginning of the 2023-24 season, which ties for the eighth longest streak in program history.

The Red Storm have been ranked for nine consecutive weeks dating back to Jan. 20 and have climbed as high as No. 5 in the Associated Press (AP) poll and No. 5 in the USA Today Coaches' poll, both marking the program's highest mark in the 21^st century. The Red Storm holds a 5-1 record against ranked opponents tallying its highest win against top-25 teams since 2010-11.

In BIG EAST play, Pitino led the Red Storm to an 18-2 record and the program's second-ever outright conference regular season title. St. John's last matched last year's UConn team for the most league victories in a single-season in conference history. Pitino's regular season championship marked the 13^th of his career and became the first-ever coach to capture the crown at five different schools.

One of the most decorated collegiate coaches in the sport, Pitino recently surpassed revered coaches Adolph Rupp and Dean Smith on the all-time wins list sliding into seventh place with 884 career victories. The lead man became the first coach to ever lead three different schools to the Final Four, where he has made seven appearances and two National Championships at Kentucky (1996) and Louisville (2013). The Hall of Fame became the first-ever coach to lead six different schools to the NCAA Tournament. Pitino holds the third highest winning percentage in the NCAA Tournament with a 54-21 (.720) mark.

No. 2 St. John's will open the NCAA Tournament in a First Round matchup on Thursday against No. 15 Omaha at 9:45 p.m. on CBS.

St. John's University Athletics

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