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Richard Andrew "Rick" Pitino is an American basketball coach. Since 2001, he has been the head coach at the University of Louisville, and coached the Cardinals to the 2013 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. As a college head coach, Pitino has also served at Boston University, Providence College and the University of Kentucky, leading that program to the NCAA championship in 1996. In addition to his college coaching career, Pitino also served two stints in the NBA, coaching the New York Knicks for two seasons and the Boston Celtics for three and a partial fourth.
Pitino holds the distinction of being the only men's coach in NCAA history to lead three different schools to a Final Four and the only coach in the NCAA to lead two different schools to an NCAA National Championship. Pitino is also one of only two coaches in NCAA history to have led two different programs to at least three Final Fours each, one of only four coaches ever to take his school to the Final Four in four separate decades. In addition, Pitino has achieved a measure of success as an author and a motivational speaker. Pitino's election to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame was officially announced on April 8 during the 2013 Final Four; he was inducted on September 8.
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