Pitino planned to face his former pupil Mark Pope starting next season in Lexington, but the Hall of Fame coach believes it will not happen now
Over the summer, both Rick Pitino and new Kentucky head coach Mark Pope teased a home-and-home series between the Red Storm and the Wildcats starting in the 2025-26 season with a game at Rupp Arena, then returning to Madison Square Garden for the 2026-27 season.
Unfortunately, those plans appear to have fallen through.
Pitino commented at Wednesday morning’s Big East Media Day that he does not think the potential series will happen now, according to a report by NJ.com’s Adam Zagoria.
“I don’t think it is going to happen now because [Kentucky] want[s] to skip a year,” Pitino told NJ.com on Wednesday.
A source told Zagoria that Kentucky has too many home scheduling commitments for the 2026-27 season that they could not play a road game at the Garden that season.
This would not been a typical matchup with a blue-blood opponent, as Rick Pitino has deep connections with Mark Pope. Pitino coached Pope at Kentucky from 1994 to 1996, winning a National Championship with the Wildcats in Pope’s senior year. The two have rubbed shoulders since Pope was hired at his alma mater last spring.
Pitino raised some eyebrows by making a surprise appearance at Kentucky’s Big Blue Madness event on October 11, wearing a blue quarter zip shirt with a white UK logo and commenting he wanted to “go back to Camelot” before his coaching career ended.
Reactions from St. John’s fans varied from indifference to irritation, with some displeased fans questioning why an active head coach would wear a different team’s gear and travel to support them weeks before the start of a new college basketball season.
Rick Pitino’s Red Storm team will play one more exhibition game on Saturday, October 26 against Towson at Carnesecca Arena (12:00 p.m., untelevised), before beginning their season against Fordham on Monday, November 4 (6:30 p.m., FS1).