St. John’s and Rick Pitino are in agreement on a restructured contract that will add a year to his current deal, The Post has learned.
The two sides have been talking for quite some time on the deal, which will include a significant pay raise not only for Pitino — making him the league’s second-highest-paid coach after Connecticut’s Dan Hurley — but also for his entire coaching staff.
The latter was the final sticking point to the deal. Hurley makes a base of $8.33 million per season. Pitino will earn in the ballpark of $6 million annually, sources said.
Entering the season, The Post reported that Pitino was the sixth-highest-paid coach in the Big East. The initial deal was worth roughly $20 million over six years, sources said.
St. John’s president Fr. Brian Shanley said at the time he would do “everything I can to keep Rick happy,” and athletic director Ed Kull made similar comments. They were true to their word.
Reached by The Post, Pitino said he is going to take some time over the next week to make sure he wants to continue coaching. But all indications are that it is something he plans to continue doing, and he wouldn’t have signed the new deal otherwise.
“I think what’s been accomplished, from a crowd standpoint, from a standpoint of building national profile, is great for both — for the coaching staff as well as them, it’s been a great marriage,” Pitino said during the Big East Tournament.
Pitino has turned around St. John’s in three years, leading the program to back-to-back outright Big East regular-season titles and consecutive Big East Tournament crowns. Both were program firsts.
This March, the Johnnies reached the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999 before losing to overall No. 1 seed Duke 80-75 on Friday night. They also won 30 games in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the 1984-85 and 1985-86 seasons.
Several times this year, Pitino has said it will either be St. John’s or retirement, and he certainly isn’t slowing down.
After winning his 900th game this year, he said he could envision reaching 1,000 if he remains healthy. That was part of the impetus for the school adding an extra year to the deal, sources said.
“Getting 900 is a nice thing certainly, but getting 1,000 would be a lot better,” Pitino said in February.
“That means I’ve got to be blessed with good health, good players and just keep recruiting, and the better you recruit, the better coach I am.”
This will be a critical offseason for the Johnnies, who will lose the starting frontcourt of Zuby Ejiofor, Dillon Mitchell and Bryce Hopkins. Key pieces like Dylan Darling, Joson Sanon and Ruben Prey are expected to return, and billionaire booster Mike Repole is going to do his best financially to help Pitino reload.
“I’m really excited not only for this year but also next year,” Repole said in a video posted to his X account. “I’ve already committed my pledge to [athletics director] Ed Kull and the athletic department and Rick Pitino and the team for next year. We don’t want this to be a one- or two-year thing. We want to build a dynasty here for the next five to 10 years.”