“Everything I have gotten out of this game I owe to Coach K.” Jay Bilas’s emotional “thank you” to Mike Krzyzewski speaks to the magnitude of the respect the basketball world has for him. Coach K molded the foundation of college basketball for Duke University for more than four decades, tallying five national championships and over 1,200 career wins. An undeniable feat—a program, staple, and monument of success and leadership. However, former coach and CBS analyst Steve Lappas selflessly believes someone else deserves to be in that conversation with Coach K. That man is Rick Pitino.

When you think of Coach K vs. Rick Pitino, you’re drawing parallels of two legends going with different styles of coaching. Coach K’s consistency and leadership has been the cornerstone for much of his historic coaching career at Duke. He’s since turned them into a legendary dynasty. Pitino, on the other hand, has been known as the program shifter. His transformation of any mediocre program into a championship-caliber has been the separating factor that has made him arguably one of the most versatile coaches ever.

Lappas explained his personal opinion for why he’d choose Pitino over Coach K under certain conditions on The Dan Patrick Show: “I always tell people, personally, when they ask me all the time: if you had to win one game, who would you want as the coach? I say there are two people: Bob Knight and Rick Pitino. If I’ve got to win one game, those are my choices.” That’s a pretty bold statement considering Coach K’s resume, but according to Lappas, it’s Pitino’s ability to change things on the fly when his back is against the wall that made him stand out.

Lappas continues, differentiating between the leadership of Coach K and Pitino’s tinkerer tendencies: “Yeah, not that you know, Coach K is a great coach. You look great! I look at those guys differently. See, Coach K was maybe the greatest leader of all time. That was his thing—leadership. Not that he wasn’t next to no guy. Knight and Pitino, those guys were tinkerers.”

Rick Pitino has a reputation for turning losers into winners, and his short tenure at St. John’s is a prime example. He led the team to the NCAA Tournament in his second season. As former Pitino player Travis Ford said, “I don’t think there could have been another coach in the history of college basketball that could have got Kentucky from where it was when he took it over to where he got it so quickly”. In a pinch, when faced with long odds, Pitino always manages to turn the tide. And this year’s Big Dance brings just that.

Rick Pitino vs John Calipari: A Battle of Hall of Fame Coaches

The focus is now on Pitino and Calipari as No. 10 Arkansas faces No. 2 St. John’s in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The two Hall of Fame coaches have squared off plenty of times, and their matchup on Saturday could be yet another memorable game in their legendary careers.

The duo have met 29 times in both the college and NBA ranks, with Calipari holding a slight 16-13 edge. The last time the pair met in the NCAA Tournament came back in 2016. In that encounter, Pitino’s Louisville team got the better of Calipari’s Kentucky squad. Now, in 2025, the two match up in the tournament once again. It’ll be the first time the duo have squared off in the postseason in almost a decade. Calipari’s Arkansas upset No. 7 Kansas 79-72 in the first round, led by Jonas Aidoo’s 22 points, while Pitino praised their ‘size and athleticism,’ noting, ‘We haven’t seen anything like this all year,’ signaling another tactical tweak ahead—St. John’s is favored by 6.5 points. Nonetheless, both teams will be thinking about their current teams, and what sort of impressions they want to leave with those teams this year.

For Pitino, victory means proof that St. John’s is back in a big way, validated by a 31-4 record and the school’s first Big East title since 1985. Winning USBWA Coach of the Year honors, Pitino has taught all who follow him to expect the unexpected.

For Calipari, a win means quieting critics and proving that he can still adapt. Arkansas looked down and out earlier this season, especially in an 0-5 start to SEC play, but Calipari has changed the narrative. His Razorbacks’ have put their early-season woes behind them and proved that he can adapt to the modern college game. “We’re all going to be judged 50 years from now on what we did and how we did it,” said Calipari. But right now, both coaches just have one thing on their mind: survive, advance, and let their teams author the next phase of their intertwined narratives.