Rick Pitino reveals excitement for future of Kentucky-Louisville rivalry

Arguably nobody understands the Kentucky–Louisville rivalry better than Rick Pitino. Although he is currently the St. John’s head coach, Pitino has remained interested in UK and UofL. Mainly through social media, where Pitino has once again expressed excitement about the two program’s futures.

“The rivalry with UK and Louisville will be awesome for years to come,” Pitino said via X. “Two great young coaches with Pat Kelsey and our captain Mark Pope.”

Pitino’s tweet comes the day after both Kentucky and Louisville got big wins.

Starting with Big Blue Nation, another rivalry game took place in Knoxville. Pope’s squad was down a few key players, mainly point guard Lamont Butler. Even so, Kentucky was able to break through and earn a massive win against Tennessee. Considering the circumstances, one of the team’s best wins of the season.

Flipping over to Louisville, Tuesday’s result against Wake Forest did not get as much national attention. But both teams are near the top of the ACC standings with an opportunity to compete for a regular season championship. Louisville taking down Wake Forest elevated them into a tier with Duke and Clemson.

For the first time in a long time, both Kentucky and Louisville are expected to make the NCAA Tournament. Not since 2019 when John Calipari and Chris Mack were running the programs did the two Blue Grass programs get into the field of 68.

To find the last time they advanced to at least the Sweet 16 in the same year, it’s 2015. Pitino was in Louisville and lost in the Elite Eight, while Kentucky made it to the Final Four but fell short of appearing in the national championship.

All of the success is coming from first-year head coaches in Pope and Kelsey. Considering the state of the true programs, predicting rocky seasons could have been easy. But Pope has Kentucky competing in the SEC while Kelsey has already well surpassed Kenny Payne on the all-time Louisville win leaderboard.

So based on just one season, Pitino believes the Kentucky-Louisville rivalry is in a good spot.

Round 1 of Pope-Kelsey did go in favor of the UK headman, with the Wildcats winning in Rupp Arena on Dec. 14. Four Kentucky players were in double figures but Butler’s 33 points and six of six shooting from three took the headlines.

Who knows — maybe a rematch will occur at some point during the NCAA Tournament. Or maybe Pitino will match up against one of them with his St. John’s squad.