Rick Pitino and Dan Hurley are two of the most fiery and emotional coaches on the sidelines in men’s college basketball.
The St. John’s and UConn basketball coaches are set to renew their rivalry Sunday when the Huskies travel to New York for a matinee game against the Red Storm at Madison Square Garden.
Sunday’s game is significant for both St. John’s and UConn heading into next month’s Big East Tournament. Pitino’s squad holds a 2.5-game lead for first place over Marquette in the league standings; Hurley’s squad is looking to make up lost ground late in the season.
But how do these two coaches stack up?
Here’s a comparison of Pitino and Hurley ahead of Sunday’s meeting between St. John’s and UConn at Madison Square Garden:
Rick Pitino vs. Dan Hurley
Head-to-head record
- Rick Pitino regular-season record vs. Dan Hurley: 1-2
- Rick Pitino postseason record vs. Dan Hurley: 0-2
- Rick Pitino overall record vs. Dan Hurley: 1-4
Pitino has a 1-4 head-to-head record vs. Hurley, though the Hall of Fame coach won their most recent meeting.
The first head-to-head meeting between Pitino and Hurley came in the first round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament, when Pitino was coaching at Iona. Behind Adama Sanogo’s game-leading 28 points, the Huskies pushed past the Gaels 87-63 to advance in the West Region of the NCAA Tournament.
Then came three consecutive losses for Pitino to Hurley after the 72-year-old coach took over the reins at St. John’s, giving him four losses to Hurley in less than a year — including one in the semifinals of last year’s Big East Tournament at The Garden.
Pitino’s lone win against Hurley came two weeks ago when both teams met at Gampel Pavilion. RJ Luis Jr. hit a baseline jumper off an inbound pass from Kadary Richmond to give the Red Storm a top-20 road win. Luis scored six of his 21 points in the final 2:16.
Here’s a game-by-game breakdown of Pitino and Hurley’s meetings as head coaches:
Seed in parentheses
- Friday, March 17, 2023: (4) UConn 87, (13) Iona 63 (NCAA Tournament — First Round)
- Saturday, Dec. 23, 2023: No. 5 UConn 69, St. John’s 65
- Saturday, Feb. 6, 2024: No. 1 UConn 77, St. John’s 64
- Friday, March 15, 2024: (1) UConn 95, (5) St. John’s 90 (Big East Tournament)
- Friday, Feb. 7, 2025: No. 12 St. John’s 68, No. 19 UConn 62
Rick Pitino resume, overall wins
- Rick Pitino overall record: Official: 754-307; Unofficial: 877-310
Pitino holds an unofficial record of 877-310 in his 36 seasons as a head coach at the collegiate level — which includes stints at Hawaii, Boston University, Providence, Kentucky, Louisville, Iona and St. John’s.
Pitino has built a resume like few others in men’s college basketball: he’s led five different programs to 23 NCAA Tournament appearances, has led three different programs to the Final Four and has had a winning season in all but three years.
His seven Final Four appearances have been matched by only five other coaches all-time, per his St. John’s profile page. When he led Louisville to the Final Four in 2005, he became the first coach to take three different schools to the Final Four.
He’s also the only coach to win a national championship with two different programs, doing so first with Kentucky in 1996 and then with Louisville in 2013. Pitino’s national championship at Louisville, of course, was stripped by the NCAA following the conclusion of a 2017 FBI investigation into the Cardinals’ program and others. Along with the stripped title came the official deduction of over 100 wins.
Pitino is doing some of the finest work of his career at St. John’s this season. He’s rejuvenated the Red Storm program. At 23-4 overall, Pitno has already led St. John’s to its most wins in a single season since 1999-2000 and top 10 ranking in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll.
Here’s a program-by-program breakdown of how Pitino’s college teams have fared:
- Hawaii (1975-76): 2-4
- Boston University (1878-1983): 91-51
- Providence (1985-87): 42-23
- Kentucky (1989-1997): 219-50
- Louisville (2001-2017): 416-143 (unofficial)
- Iona (2020-23): 64-22
- St.John’s (2023-present): 43-17
- Overall: 877-310 (unofficial)
Dan Hurley resume, overall wins
- Dan Hurley overall record: 310-171
Hurley holds an overall record of 310-171 in his 15 seasons as a head coach at the collegiate level — which includes stints at Wagner, Rhode Island and UConn.
Since UConn rejoined the Big East in 2020 from the American Athletic Conference, Hurley has transformed into one of the top coaches in the sport, posting a 124-32 overall record with four straight NCAA Tournament appearances, a Big East Tournament title and back-to-back national championships.
When the Huskies defeated Purdue in the national championship game last April, Hurley became just the third coach in the last 40 years to win back-to-back national titles.
Here’s a program-by-program breakdown of how Hurley’s teams have fared:
- Wagner (2011-12): 38-23
- Rhode Island (2012-18): 113-82
- UConn (2018-present): 159-68
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