Rick Pitino breaks 'last interview' promise, opens door to coaching again

Two weeks after saying he'd given his last interview, former Louisville men's basketball coach Rick Pitino talked with an Albany (N.Y.) Times Union columnist for 30 minutes to defend his reputation and address the rumors he was interested in the Siena job.

Pitino has intimated in a number of other interviews that he is done coaching, but left the door open again in a column online Wednesday by columnist Chris Churchill.

"The only thing I'm looking for, wherever I'm going to coach, is to impact the lives of people in some positive way," Pitino told Churchill, also noting he has turned down two coaching offers. "I'm not looking to become wealthy. I'm not looking to be famous. I want to impact lives."

The call was in response to a largely tongue-in-cheek column Churchill wrote Tuesday, in which he joked "that if Pitino is hired by Siena, we might see him canoodling with women in coffee shops and wonder why his players drive BMWs."

The dig hit at both the college basketball recruiting scandal that helped cost Pitino his job last year and the Karen Sypher sex scandal that marred his reputation more than 15 years ago. Pitino, apparently could not let either pass.

"I've never been in a coffee shop canoodling with a woman," Pitino told Churchill.

As for the corruption scandals, Pitino, maintained his innocence. "My conscience is totally clear as far as anything with scandals in college basketball."

This story was originally published April 18, 2018 at 10:41 AM with the headline "Rick Pitino breaks 'last interview' promise, opens door to coaching again."