Louisville Signs Rick Pitino To Contract Extension Through 2025-26

I want to see a 90-year-old Rick Pitino being frustrated as hell trying to coach Russ Smith III.

But seriously, this is great news.

The University of Louisville has extended the contract of men's basketball coach Rick Pitino four years, boosting his association with the Cardinals through the 2025-26 season.

The first coach in NCAA history to win a national title at two different schools and the first to take three different teams to the Final Four, Pitino had seven years remaining on his current contract, which had tied him with the Cardinals through the 2021-22 season.

In 30 seasons as a collegiate head coach at five different schools, Pitino has compiled a 722-254 record, a .740 winning percentage that ranks him 11th among active coaches. He has a 368-126 record in 14 seasons at UofL, the third winningest coach in Cardinal history. UofL is among the nations' top 10 programs in winning percentage under his guidance.

Pitino was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013, lofty recognition for a lifetime of impressive basketball achievement. His up-tempo style, pressure defense, strong work ethic and family atmosphere have restored the Cardinals to national prominence where it is firmly seated.

His most recent Cardinals reached the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament appearance for the fifth time in the last eight years and played their first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference, finishing fourth among a league with five teams in the nation's top 25, including NCAA Champion Duke. He won his 700th game along the way.

Pitino guided the Cardinals to the 2013 NCAA Championship after claiming the nation's top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and winning the BIG EAST Conference regular season co-championship and tournament titles. The Cardinals won a school-record 35 games while claiming their first NCAA title in 27 years. UofL reached its second straight and10th Final Four, marking Pitino's seventh, a total reached by only six coaches all-time.

A 2006 inductee to the New York City Hall of Fame, Pitino has the second-highest winning percentage in NCAA Tournament games among active coaches, winning 74.6 percent of his games in the post-season event with a 53-18 record in 20 tournament appearances.

Here are the full details of the new deal: