Rick Pitino makes St. John’s history with award win

SAN ANTONIO — St. John’s best season in 25 years now includes a program first: An Associated Press National Coach of the Year award winner.

Rick Pitino was announced as a co-winner of the award, along with Auburn coach Bruce Pearl, on Friday. It is the first time Pitino has received the honor.

It is also the first time the award has been split between two coaches in the 58-year history of voting.

It comes on the heels of St. John’s winning its first outright Big East regular season crown since 1985 and first Big East Tournament title since 2000.

He led the program to school record-equaling 31 wins and its first NCAA Tournament victory in 25 years. The Johnnies’ season ended in a second-round loss to Arkansas.

The 72-year-old Pitino is also a finalist for the Naismith National Coach of the Year, which is announced on Sunday.

The other finalists are Jon Scheyer of Duke, Kelvin Sampson of Houston and Pearl. No St. John’s coach has ever won that award, either.

Pitino was also recently named the U.S. Basketball Writers’ Association’s (USBWA) Henry Iba National Coach of the Year. He is the second St. John’s coach to ever receive that honor, joining Lou Carnesecca in 1983 and ’85.

Pitino was named the Big East Coach of the Year after guiding the Red Storm to an 18-2 mark in the conference. Zuby Ejiofor and RJ Luis were All-Big East first team selections.

Pearl has Auburn in the Final Four and the Tigers play SEC rival Florida here on Saturday night.