SAN ANTONIO — Louisville basketball is finalizing a home-and-home series with St. John's, starting with a game at Madison Square Garden early in the 2025-26 season.
That's per former Cardinals coach Rick Pitino, who's now with the Red Storm and spoke with reporters Friday at the Final Four — after accepting a share of The Associated Press' Coach of the Year Award.
"Right now, we're negotiating with Louisville to bring them in very early in the season to play us," Pitino said. "After they signed the backcourt that they just signed, I'm thinking of canceling that proposal. They're looking at their schedule to see if they could do it."
This matchup in the Big Apple will be Pitino's first game against his old team since he was "effectively fired" in 2017 amid an FBI investigation into an alleged pay-for-play scandal — he was later exonerated in 2022 by an independent NCAA panel.
In addition to the game against St. John's, Louisville's 2025-26 nonconference schedule also includes a road trip to Tennessee's Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center on Dec. 16.
Rick Pitino: St. John's "may be going to Kentucky" for exhibition vs. Mark Pope
Pitino also said he was entertaining the idea of playing an exhibition game against Kentucky, another one of his former teams, at Rupp Arena. He said coach
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