Report: St. John's Rick Pitino becomes Big East's second-highest paid coach with amended deal

St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino has formally signed an amended contract with the Red Storm that will make him the Big East’s second-highest paid head men’s basketball coach, according to CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein. The 73-year-old Pitino gets the significant raise after leading St. John’s to its first Sweet Sixteen since 1999, a run that ended with Friday night’s 80-75 loss to top-overall seed Duke in Washington D.C.

UConn’s Dan Hurley is currently the Big East’s highest paid head coach at approximately $8.3 million annually after inking a six-year $50 million deal in 2024 following interest from the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers. Meanwhile, Pitino was previously making approximately $3.3 million annually in the third year of a six-year, $20 million contract he signed when he took the job in 2023. No financial terms of the new amended contract were disclosed as of Sunday evening.

Given his elevated age and extensive career, there is always offseason speculation regarding Pitino’s future. But after re-upping with the Red Storm, “all signs point to him coming back” to St. John’s for the 2026-27 season according to NJ.com’s AdamZagoria.

Pitino already made it clear he has no interest in leaving the Red Storm for any other opportunity, as he told Zagoria last week. This response came less than 24 hours after North Carolina parted ways with alumnus Hubert Davis after five seasons leading the Tar Heels on Tuesday night.

“It’s St. John’s or retirement for me,” Pitino told Zagoria by phone Wednesday.

Following more than five decades in coaching, Pitino is one of college basketball’s most well-traveled active head coaches with notable stops at Boston University (1978-83), Providence (1985-87), Kentucky (1989-97), Louisville (2001-17), Iona (2020-23) and now St. John’s since 2023.

Given that extensive history in the sport, the 73-year-old is clearly comfortable where he is, especially in the midst of his first Sweet 16 run since taking Louisville to four straight between 2012-15. Beginning in 2012, Pitino led the Cardinals to back-to-back Final Fours, which included winning the 2013 national championship, as well as the Elite Eight in 2015.

Of course, those four seasons have since been stripped from the record books after the NCAA charged Pitino with failure to monitor related to an alleged sex-for-play scandal that ultimately led to his 2017 firing. Louisville was forced to vacate 123 victories between 2011-15, including the 2013 national championship, marking the first time the NCAA vacated a national title in men’s college basketball.