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Rick Pitino is planning to return to Louisville for the first time since he was fired ahead of the 2017-18 season.
On Jan. 2 ahead of a game against Stanford, the ACC school is going to hang a banner honoring the late Kenny Klein, and Pitino will be in attendance. St. John’s visits Butler the following day.
Klein, a legendary sports information director for Louisville who worked at St. John’s the past two years, died June 25 at the age of 66. His banner will join the retired numbers in the rafters of the KFC Yum! Center.
“Kenny was the No. 1 sports information guy who ran the Final Four for the media for 30-plus years. Did the Kentucky Derby media, did the Ryder Cup media and in just a two-year span, [at St. John’s] made a tremendous change on everything that’s happening here,” Pitino said Friday.
St. John’s is honoring Klein this season by keeping the seat next to Pitino at the scorer’s table empty and adding a black band onto their jerseys with the letters “K.K.”
During the 2024-25 season, Louisville honored the 2005 Final Four team that Pitino coached. He did not attend the celebration, but a video message from him was played during the festivities. In 16 seasons at Louisville, Pitino won a national championship and led the Cardinals to the Final Four three times.
“I was fired from [Louisville] but like I’ve said many, many times, what went on, I deserved to be fired. The people that fired me and did it the wrong way are all gone now,” Pitino said. “The board of directors are all gone, replaced by the right people. The chairman of the board, Larry Benz, is a friend of mine and he personally apologized to me just three months ago in person for the way I was treated. It’s all forgotten, it’s all forgiven.”
St. John’s could face Louisville in the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas. If both teams win their opener, they would meet Thanksgiving Day.
“I hope they do great in every single game but one,” Pitino said of Louisville.
St. John’s is hosting top 20 prospect Malachi Jordan from Prolific Prep (Nev.) this weekend. Pitino said the Red Storm could wind up adding three high school prospects for next season, a tweak to the Red Storm’s recruiting philosophy, which has mostly focused on older players.