The University of Louisville and AD Tom Jurich announced today that head coach Rick Pitino has signed a four year contract extension through the 2025-2026 season. This is coming off another Elite Eight appearance from the Cardinals. Pitino is already 62, but no one knows when he will ever call it quits.
“When we started discussing this about six weeks ago, I started going on my fingers how old I was,” Pitino said. “I said, 'Tom, honestly, do you really think I’ll live that long?'”
He has been a college coach for 30 seasons with five different teams and has compiled a 722-254 record. Pitino is the only coach to win a national title with two different schools (Kentucky and Louisville). He was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2013 during the Louisville title run. Pitino has been the head coach for the Cardinals since 2001, and has brought the program into the college basketball elites.
“I never looked at this as a job; I looked at it as a privilege,” Pitino said.
His salary will increase from $4.448 million for the 2015-16 season to $5.093 million in 2016-17. The 10-year extenstion is worth $50.93 million in salary. Pitino is eligible for $250,000 in academic bonuses and another $500,000 if Louisville wins another national championship.
“He paid me a compliment at that time and I knew it was the right move. You can pay someone a lot of money, give them a lot of perks and things, but when you’re 62, the compliment he gave me was as good as getting $100 million, Pitino said. He said, ‘You’re more passionate and better than you’ve ever been as a coach.”
At Louisville, Pitino has only missed the NCAA Tournament twice and the Cardinals have been to the Final Four three times. Winning the title in 2013 was the highlight of his career at Louisville and he should bring at least one more before he retires. Louisville will be a contender for as long as Pitino is the head coach. He has built a winning program at Louisville and will bring that same success for years to come.
“Any time we can lock up a Hall of Fame coach, a great coach, and an incredible asset to our university, we want to take full advantage of it,” Jurich said.