ATLANTA — Rick Pitino is headed to the Naismith Hall of Fame.
According to a report on ESPNNewYork.com, the Louisville coach and New York native has been notified that he will be inducted in the Class of 2013.
Pitino will be officially named to the Hall of Fame Monday morning, and he could win his second NCAA championship later that night.
“I just would love to see the national championship one happen,” Pitino said here Thursday.
Louisville faces Wichita State here in one national semifinal Saturday, while Syracuse and Michigan meet in the other.
“I think when September rolls around, I’ll have my 10-15 minutes of a great experience if it is to happen,” Pitino said of the Hall of Fame.
“But right now this is about the guys, the players, Louisville, the city, the university winning a championship.”
As we reported in this column, had Pitino not spent eight seasons coaching in the NBA, he could have about 850 wins right now and potentially several more NCAA championships.
“It’s an absolute joke that Rick Pitino’s not in the Hall of Fame,” Manhattan coach and former Pitino assistant Steve Masiello told SNY.tv before the news broke of Pitino’s induction. “It’s ridiculous. I mean, what he’s accomplished, what he has done for the game of basketball and people’s lives he’s affected and made better is what being a Hall of Famer is all about.
“He basically changed the college basketball game in 1987 with the 3-point line and the use of it. He then went on and had great success at the collegiate level, coaching one of the best teams ever in college basketball, the ’96 Kentucky team. He’s the only coach to get three of his teams to the Final Four. He’s going into his seventh [Final Four].
“And what people forget is he was very successful with the Knicks. He went 52-30 [in 1988-89], second round of the playoffs, won the Atlantic Division. More importantly, you look at his coaching tree, you look at his legacy, you look at what he’s done, I think it’s one of the biggest jokes in sports that he’s not in [the Hall of Fame].”
