Pitino receives four-year extension

Jun 9, 2015 - 6:44 PM Louisville, KY (SportsNetwork.com) - Louisville has extended the contract of men's head basketball coach Rick Pitino for an additional four years through the 2025-26 season.

Financial terms were not available.

Pitino had seven years remaining on his current deal. He has a record of 368-126 with 12 NCAA Tournament appearances in 14 seasons at Louisville, making him the third-winningest coach in school history.

The 62-year-old New York native guided the Cardinals to the 2013 national championship, making Pitino the only coach to win a national title with two different schools. He led Kentucky to the 1996 championship.

Louisville was 27-9 this past season, falling just short of another Final Four berth with a loss to Michigan State in the NCAA Tournament East Regional final. The Cardinals have been to the Elite Eight five times in the last eight years.

In 30 seasons as a collegiate head coach with five different schools, Pitino has a record of 722-254. Seven of his teams have reached the Final Four -- three each with Louisville and Kentucky, as well as Providence in 1987.

Pitino began his head coaching career with a six-game interim stint at Hawaii to end the 1975-76 season. He then spent two years as an assistant under Jim Boeheim at Syracuse before becoming a full-time head coach for the first time in 1978 at Boston University at the age of 25.

After five years and one NCAA Tournament appearance at BU, he joined the NBA's New York Knicks as an assistant coach for two seasons, then spent two successful years at Providence before becoming head coach of the Knicks.

Following a two-year stint and two playoff appearances with the Knicks, he left for Kentucky in 1989 and spent eight stellar years with the Wildcats before another foray into the NBA.

Pitino served as president and head coach of the Boston Celtics for 3 1/2 years before returning to college with Louisville in 2001.

The Cardinals have won fewer than 20 games just once under Pitino, in his first season of 2001-02, and five times have reached at least 30 victories. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013.