Rick Pitino has constructed a gauntlet of massive nonconference tilts on St. John’s schedule, including the likes of Alabama and Ole Miss at Madison Square Garden, Kentucky in the CBS Sports Classic and both Iowa State and Baylor in the Players Era Men’s Championship.
Buckle up.
But the future Hall of Famer, fresh off leading St. John’s to a Big East regular season and tournament title, also had inclinations of playing Louisville in 2025-26, but those well-intentioned plans fell awry, according to CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander. Pitino doubled down on his willingness to return to Louisville for a nonconference game in an appearance this week with CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein on Inside College Basketball Now.
The history between Louisville and Pitino is complicated, marred with scandal, lawsuits, exile, tons of wins, three Final Fours and a now-vacated — but always memorable — 2013 national championship.
“I had a lot of problems with the University of Louisville, and there’s certain things I’ll never forgive that they did,” Pitino told Rothstein. “But that has nothing to do with the present administration at the University of Louisville, because the people that I was upset about are no longer Board of Trustees. And I really wasn’t upset that they fired me. Anybody can be fired. I’m okay with that.
“It was the treatment they gave Tom Jurich, but just recently, they named the street outside of the young of the practice facility, ‘Tom Jurich Way.’ So all is forgiven, all is forgotten. I no longer even think the slightest bit negatively about the University of Louisville, and I would go back in a New York minute. Everything’s forgiven. Tom Jurich Way is up there, I really don’t care too much about myself. My staff did some things that I did not appreciate, and I have no problem with them terminating me at all. I’ve got to take responsibility for what happened, but I also take responsibility for 17 unbelievable years, three Final Fours and a national championship. So great memories, great place.”
Even though a Louisville-St. John’s game will not happen in 2025-26, there’s momentum on both sides of the aisle for it to happen in the not-so-distant future. Pitino is open to it. Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey is open to it, too. Louisville and St. John’s are primed to be title contenders in the ACC and Big East, respectively.
It’s time.
More and more college basketball coaches throughout the country are starting to embrace the “anybody, anywhere” mindset in nonconference play because good teams that load up on elite competition has almost no downside in the quest for an at-large bid. The 2025-26 nonconference slate is shaping up to be one of the best in recent memory, especially with neutral-site tilts like BYU-UConn, Michigan-Duke or St. John’s-Kentucky giving national championship hopefuls an early taste of what a second-weekend game in March might look like.
But home-and-home series are special and college basketball at its absolute best. Michigan State-Arkansas, Alabama-St. John’s, Arizona-UConn and Illinois-Texas Tech headline some of the marquee home-and-home tangles that will get underway this winter.
Louisville-St. John’s would be the next prominent one that needs to happen, but there are a few extra nonconference games that need to get added to the docket sooner rather than later.
Let’s dive into five juicy matchups.
Kentucky vs. BYU
The storylines between Kentucky and BYU are obvious. The reception for Mark Pope’s return to Provo would be fascinating, with lots of layers to unpack after Pope left for his alma mater in April 2024. In some ways, BYU’s faithful could firmly believe it won the amicable divorce, especially since the Kevin Young era is off to a red-hot start, but a feeling of defection could remain.
That’s all the tertiary stuff that doesn’t ultimately matter.
The basketball would be excellent. Pope’s offense is gorgeous, and BYU runs phenomenal actions, too. Young and Pope trading wits would be a delightful chess match, and the talent influx for both programs isn’t slowing down anytime soon. The coffers at both Kentucky and BYU are jam-packed with gold. Young believes that five-star freshman AJ Dybantsa picking BYU is just the beginning. Kentucky basketball wants to be the best at everything: on the court, in the transfer portal, on the recruiting trail and anything else you can think of.
It’s old money versus new money.
Game on.
Maryland and Duke have not played since 2014 due to the scourge of realignment.
That just has to be rectified to bring some nostalgia back between two old ACC rivals.
Cameron is unmistakably electric every night, but when the Terps are rolling, Maryland’s homecourt advantage is pound for pound as good as anybody’s. The Wall isn’t made of solid ice, but it strikes fear nonetheless.
A Duke-Maryland, home-and-home series would be terrific visibility for the sport, but patience might be a virtue. We’ve waited 11 years. We can wait a little longer.
Jon Scheyer and Duke are chugging along with multiple Final Four appearances seemingly well within grasp, but Maryland might need a year or two to get humming again under new coach Buzz Williams. What a missed opportunity last year turned out to be. Derik Queen and the Crab Five versus Cooper Flagg (Queen’s old high school teammate), Kon Knueppel and Duke’s superteam would’ve been must-watch stuff.
Give Williams — a perennial 20-game winner — a little bit to get humming, and let’s get this old rivalry back on the books.
Duke better strap on the football helmets and be ready to box out.
Since the ACC has trimmed its schedule from 20 games to 18 to try and buff up its nonconference ledger, it provides a flawless opportunity for Syracuse to rekindle its old Big East rivalry with UConn.
Of course, it’s up to Syracuse to hold up its end of the bargain to make it worth UConn’s time from a resume standpoint. The Orange have been mired in mediocrity, notching just one top-50 finish on KenPom since 2020, while UConn made the 2023 and 2024 NCAA Tournaments look like a peaceful stroll.
Maybe, just maybe, we’ll be rewarded with a six-overtime game as an ode to 2009.
Gonzaga is a casual 85-5 at home since 2019. That snazzy 94.4% win rate is the best of any team in college basketball. That’s the type of daunting challenge Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd would be walking into. Of course, Lloyd is no stranger to The Kennel. The 20-year Gonzaga assistant helped build the Zags into one of the best programs in the country, but Arizona and Gonzaga — two titans of the West — have not tangled since Lloyd took the Arizona gig ahead of the 2021-22 campaign.
Mark Few already has his succession plan in place. Brian Michaelson, another long-time Few understudy, will take over when Few retires. Who knows when that day will come, but Arizona and Gonzaga need to meet before Few hangs it up to go fly-fishing for good.
There is, uhhh, no love lost between Texas Tech’s loyal fanbase and Chris Beard. Those in the building still rave about the raucous atmosphere when Beard brought his Texas team to Lubbock in February of 2022.
The vitriol might not be quite as nasty since Texas Tech’s relationship with Texas is more strained than Ole Miss, but there’d be oodles of vim and vinegar in the building.
Oh, and the arrow for both programs is skyrocketing. Beard is just a straight winner who promptly took Ole Miss to the Sweet 16 in Year 1. Grant McCasland has this thing rolling at Texas Tech. The Red Raiders have everything they need to make a real run at their first Final Four since … Beard led them to the 2019 national championship game.
Good, old-fashioned hate. There’s nothing better to spice up the hoops.
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