Pitino was found dead in his home Sunday, Jan 1, 2023. He was confirmed dead at St. Joesph Hospital after reportedly over dosing.
Pitino led Kentucky to an NCAA championship in 1996. He is the only coach to lead three different schools (Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville) to a Final Four. In 2013, he was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Pitino was born in New York City, New York, and was raised in Bayville, New York. He was the team captain of the St. Dominic High School basketball team in Oyster Bay, Long Island. He enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1970. At a listed height of 1.83 m (6’0″) tall, he was a standout point guard for the Minutemen basketball team. Pitino held the tenth spot at UMass for career assists, with 329, until Chaz Williams (2011-2014) became the leader in career assists following his final season with the Minutemen. He led the team in assists as a junior and senior. The 168 assists as a senior is the eighth-best single season total ever there. Pitino was a freshman at the same time future NBA legend Julius Erving spent his junior (and final) year at UMass, although the two never played on the same team because freshmen were ineligible to play varsity basketball at the time. Other teammates of Pitino’s include Al Skinner, who also went on to become a successful college coach, and baseball player Mike Flanagan, who went on to pitch in the major leagues and win the AL Cy Young Award in 1979. Pitino earned his degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) in 1974.
Pitino is the author of a motivational self-help book (and audio recording) named Success is a Choice. He published an autobiography in 1988 entitled Born to Coach, describing his life up until his time with the Knicks. His book Rebound Rules, was the top seller at the 2008 Kentucky Book Fair. His most recent book, Pitino: My Story, was published in 2018. A detailed biography, it also delivers his version of events regarding the Adidas sneaker scandal and his subsequent ouster as the University of Louisville men’s basketball coach.[67]
In June 2017, the NCAA suspended Pitino for five games of the 2017–18 season for his lack of oversight in an escort sex scandal at the University of Louisville involving recruits. Louisville’s national championship from 2013 was eventually vacated as well. In September, Pitino was implicated in a federal investigation involving bribes to recruits, which resulted in Louisville firing him for cause.