Rick Pitino recalls facing basketball legends like Michael Jordan & Patrick Ewing, meeting Bob Knight & John Calipari at Five-Star basketball camp

St. John's coach Rick Pitino led the Red Storm to a Big East Tournament title and a spot in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, in just his second year in charge of the program. The No. 2 seed Red Storm blew out the No. 15 seed Omaha Mavericks 83-53 in the first round of the Big Dance on Thursday to set up a meeting between Pitino and his rival, John Calipari's No. 10 seed Arkansas Razorbacks.

During his pre-game press conference, Pitino spoke fondly of playing against basketball legends like Patrick Ewing and Michael Jordan at the Five-Star basketball camp. It was during the camp that Pitino first met Calipari who was a young player at the time.

"Five Star was the start of all of us," Rick Pitino said. "I don't know if we would be sitting here if it wasn't for Howard Garfinkel and Five-Star. Back then, there was no AAU basketball, it was just all of the players from all over the world came to Pennsylvania to compete at the Five-Star Basketball Camp."

"I remember giving lectures and playing against guys like Patrick (Ewing) and Michael Jordan and people of that stature," the veteran coach added. "It was amazing back then. We all had our start, going from Hubie Brown to Bob Knight to Vitale (Dick) and Chuck Daley and all of them. John (Calipari) was a young counselor at the time who worked his way up the ladder as we all did."

Rick Pitino and John Calipari share a storied history

After meeting at the Five-Star camp, Rick Pitino and John Calipari crossed paths several times in their careers. They have faced each other 23 times in college basketball as coaches with Calipari holding the advantage 13-10. They also met six times as NBA coaches and hold an even 3-3 record in those games.

During his pre-game press conference, Calipari whose Arkansas Razorbacks took down the Kansas Jayhawks in the first round, broke down the relationship between the duo.

“We started in that camp and I have always looked up to him because when I was a camper he was a counselor,” Calipari said. “When I became a counselor, he was a speaker ... Again, understand I don't know how long he was at Louisville when I was at Kentucky, but you're not going to be friends when you've got those two jobs.”

Years after Rick Pitino left the Kentucky Wildcats job, John Calipari was appointed to the job as well. The coaches became big rivals once again when Pitino took the Louisville Cardinals job where he won the now-vacated national championship in 2013, just a year after Calipari won the national title with the Wildcats.

The meeting on Sunday between St. John's Red Storm and the Arkansas Razorbacks in the second round of the NCAA Tournament has decades of rivalry behind it via the legendary coaches who will stand on the sidelines.