Rick Pitino said nice things about Calipari and was pretty funny on Rex Chapman's podcast

Rick Pitino isn’t the villain he once was when he wore the rival’s colors at Louisville and helped the Cardinals set a Guinness World Record for scandals while not winning the national championship in 2013. Maybe it’s time healing old wounds, or maybe it’s Chris Mack cutting wrestling promos and beefing with former assistants, but Pitino has slipped in the rankings of UK Basketball’s adversaries in recent years.

Since giving us the finger, Rick snuck off to Greece to live his best life for a year, only to come back to the States to “never coach again.” Soon after never coaching again, he became the head coach at Iona, a MAAC school in New York with rich tradition, and in his first season he won the national media back over by guiding the Gaels to the NCAA Tournament for only the fifth time in five years. Before Pitino, Iona had only made the Big Dance four times in four years, so you can see why everyone was so ecstatic for the rebuild.

But all jokes aside, Pitino seems to be doing well and in a recent conversation with Rex Chapman and Josh Hopkins for Rex’s podcast he called Iona “a perfect ending” for his career.

“It’s going back to Five-Star (Basketball Camp),” he said. “It’s a boy, a ball and a dream, and in your dream you’re trying to take a small Catholic school that’s had great tradition, and you want to take it to a level where Kentucky, Louisville, Providence, all of those were.”

Then Pitino got me hooked for the remaining 46 minutes in the podcast when he said, “And I tell you because you’re in Coach Calipari country, we are the only two coaches to take three different schools to a Final Four, and when I take Iona to a Final Four, Cal will never get that from me.”

It was one of many great lines and stories from Pitino’s appearance on the latest episode of the Rex Chapman Show in which Pitino spoke fondly of his time at Kentucky and lots more. We’ve given Rick a hard time over the years for speaking when he shouldn’t, but in this fun-spirited interview he opened up about lots of Kentucky things from the good days, and it’s a great listen.

Other interesting stories include his handling of Derek Anderson’s injury; Richie Farmer trying to leave the team; and Tubby Smith sleeping in a jockstrap in fear of oversleeping Pitino’s morning pickup games. He also promised to get a tattoo if Iona wins the national championship. “If I win at Iona, I’ll get it on my forehead like Mike Tyson,” he said.

In one more big quote before I leave the rest in the podcast, Pitino spoke highly of Calipari and the job Calipari has done at Kentucky.

“I’ve known John Calipari since he was a young camper at Five-Star, and he has been a great guardian of that program,” Pitino said of Coach Cal. “He’s taken it to places I didn’t even think it could reach in terms of players he’s brought in there. I think some day 30 or 40 percent of the NBA’s going to be UK grads. He’s done a remarkable, remarkable job. He’s been a great guardian of that basketball program.”

Pitino said Calipari checked in with him during his time in Greece more than anyone outside of Pitino’s inner circle.

“A lot of my friends, so-called friends, abandoned me when I went to Greece. You know who texted me the most? … John Calipari.”

“Now we were not close friends, but John Calipari for the two years I was in Greece, always reached out to see how I was doing. That was never publicized, I never told anybody that, but it tells you a lot about him that people don’t know about.”

I highly recommend listening to all Pitino had to say with Rex and Josh below.