Rick Pitino on Christian Laettner: 'Every time I see him I have nightmares'

Some nightmares last a lifetime. In 1992, a young Rick Pitino led his Kentucky team to the Elite Eight, where they faced off against a powerhouse Duke squad led by college basketball legend Christian Laettner.

It was a war between the two blue bloods and Kentucky led the Blue Devils by a point with two seconds remaining in overtime. Then, the impossible happened. Duke threw an inbounds pass all the way from its baseline to the opposite free throw line, where Laettner caught the ball and drained a miraculous game-winning shot.

Duke won its next two games and secured the program’s second-straight national championship. While Blue Devil fans enjoy seeing the highlight flash across their screen during March every year, Rick Pitino dreads it.

Evidently, he doesn’t need the full highlight to be reminded of the memory, either. While accepting his Naismith Coach of the Year Award on Sunday, Pitino spotted Laettner in the crowd and couldn’t help but bring up their history.

“I just wanna be on the record: I’m not excited to see Christian Laettner here. Every time I see him I have nightmares,” Pitino said, per the New York Post‘s Zach Braziller.

The winner of the Naismith Coach of the Year award is Rick Pitino. The other three finalists: Bruce Pearl, Kelvin Sampson and Jon Scheyer.

Pitino adds this honor to the AP Coach of the Year award that he received earlier this week. pic.twitter.com/odqLknOIK0

— John Fanta (@John_Fanta) April 6, 2025

Pitino didn’t allow the nightmarish moment to stop him from having one of the best college basketball coaching careers of all time. He has two national championships (Kentucky 1996, Louisville 2013), seven Final Four appearances and numerous coach of the year awards on his résumé.

After being dismissed from Louisville following a recruiting scandal, Pitino gradually worked his way back to the highest ranks of the sport, landing a job at St. John’s in 2023.

It didn’t take long for Pitino to find success in his new environment. The 72-year-old head coach led the Red Storm to 31-5 overall record this season, along with the Big East regular-season and conference titles.

For its efforts, St. John’s received a 2-seed in the NCAA Tournament but ultimately suffered an upset loss against Arkansas in the second round. Although it wasn’t the storybook ending Pitino was hoping for, others around the country didn’t take the legendary head coach’s standout season for granted.

Last week, Pitino was named the co-winner of the AP Coach of the Year Award, along with Auburn‘s Bruce Pearl. Now, he’s also the 2025 Naismith Coach of the Year. He won the prestigious honor over Houston‘s Kelvin Sampson, Duke‘s Jon Scheyer and Pearl.