St. John’s ready to do ‘whatever it takes’ to keep Rick Pitino as contract decision looms

St. John’s says it is determined to make this Rick Pitino’s last job. 

President Fr. Brian Shanley and athletic director Ed Kull both said they anticipate needing to rework the Hall of Fame coach’s contract to ensure that happens. 

“From my perspective, we’re going to do anything and everything it takes to keep Rick Pitino here,” Kull said after a groundbreaking ceremony for a new $60 million basketball practice facility on Saturday. “Whatever it takes, you have my word, we’re keeping Rick Pitino here. 

“We are committed to Rick Pitino ending his career here. At the end of the day, it’s his terms, his timeline, but we are fully committed that this is his last stop.” 

The 73-year-old Pitino has completely flipped the program in two seasons, leading St. John’s to Big East regular season and postseason titles a year ago, along with its first NCAA Tournament victory in 25 years. This week, they were ranked fifth in the Associated Press preseason poll, the school’s highest preseason ranking ever. St. John’s brought in the top-ranked transfer class in the country, according to 247 Sports, and is considered a Final Four contender. 

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“The key piece in getting to the point where we are today [with the new basketball facility] was reestablishing the basketball program, in particular the men’s basketball program, and the key to all of this was hiring Rick Pitino,” Shanley said during his speech as part of the groundbreaking ceremony. “I wasn’t going to get investor buy-in to do what we needed to do for both the men’s and women’s programs until we had something donors and alumni and this city would be proud of.” 

Pitino is entering his third year of a six-year contract, which is paying him roughly $20 million altogether. At his current salary, he is the sixth-highest paid coach in the Big East. UConn coach Dan Hurley recently signed a six-year deal worth $50 million. 

Last offseason, a power-five school pursued Pitino, but he declined to engage. That came following the failure of talks between Pitino and St. John’s to rework his contract. 

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“We approached them and tried to negotiate what we thought would be a very fair deal and it didn’t go anywhere,” his agent, Evan Daniels, told The Post. “We believe with what he’s accomplished, he should be paid among the top coaches in the country and certainly among his peers atop the Big East. 

“All that said, coach isn’t focused on anything negative, only the positive and continuing to build St. John’s.” 

Pitino has frequently said that at the end of each year, he weighs his future, and how much longer he would like to coach. Pitino experienced retirement once, when he was fired by Louisville in October of 2017, and didn’t like it. 

“I missed [coaching] too much,” he said last season. 

When told that Pitino is sixth in the Big East in salary, Shanley agreed that shouldn’t be the case. The market has clearly changed since he was hired. 

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“Based on his success, I know the price is going to go up, and I think we’re going to be able to get the resources to get to where we need to go,” Shanley said. “I’ll do everything I can to keep Rick happy. I don’t want to lose Rick, because I think he’s the best coach in college basketball.” 

Shanley later added: “We’re going to be successful this year, and when this season’s over, we’ll sit down with Rick like we do every year, and we’ll say: Let’s talk about going forward. What is it going to take to keep you happy and keep you here?”