An emotional Rick Pitino returns to Kentucky’s Rupp Arena

Rick Pitino came home Friday night.

Nearly three decades after he led Kentucky to the 1996 national championship, Pitino walked onto the floor at Rupp Arena and fans there cheered loudly during Kentucky’s Big Blue Madness event.

Pitino, now the coach at St. John’s, wore a Kentucky sweater during his return to campus. He visited Rupp Arena multiple times as an opposing coach at Louisville, but never enjoyed the warm welcome he received Friday night, an opportunity created when Kentucky hired Mark Pope, captain of that Pitino-coached 1996 squad, in March.

Surrounded by some of his former players, an emotional Pitino needed a moment to collect himself after grabbing the microphone.

“I’m very happy to be back,” he said. “I said before coaching, I want to go back to Camelot one more time. There’s no better way to come back than this. It’s one of the best nights I’ve had in a long time because I met all my players who have made me happy every day for eight years. .”

Before Friday’s reunion, it had been a tumultuous ride for Pitino with the Kentucky fanbase. In 1997, he received a record 10-year, $70 million contract to coach the Boston Celtics, a year after his national title run at Kentucky. But after a tumultuous tenure in the NBA, Pitino resigned as Celtics coach and agreed to take a job at in-state rival Louisville in 2001 following the departure of Denny Crum.

At his introductory press conference, Pitino said one of his biggest concerns in taking the job was the reaction he knew he would get from Kentucky fans. He was right. Once John Calipari arrived as Wildcats coach in 2009, the Kentucky-Louisville rivalry regained its fiery edge.

In 2012, before Louisville’s matchup in the Final Four against Kentucky, Pitino called the rivalry “pure hate.” And after a 2015 loss to the Wildcats at Rupp Arena, he was accused of using an obscene gesture toward the crowd. Pitino denied those claims, despite videos that suggested otherwise.

That bitter history made Friday night’s return all the more surprising. But Pitino has served as Pope’s mentor since he agreed to replace Calipari, who left for Arkansas after a difficult four-year stretch. And his connection to the Pope with Calipari’s warm ending at the school seemed to soften the resentment on both sides.

Pitino told the Kentucky crowd Friday night that Pope will lead Kentucky — which has two first-round exits in the last three NCAA Tournaments — to “greatness.”

“And now we get to root for someone that the name Kentucky is all about,” Pitino said. “It’s not about Pope. It’s not about Pope. You’ll never hear him say (that). Most unselfish, humble, young man I’ve ever coached in my lifetime. Mark Pope is a great, great example of Kentucky basketball. Thank you all so much.