Louisville Basketball: Rick Pitino Signs Contract Extension Through 2025-2026 Season
ByThe University of Louisville extended head men's basketball coach Rick Pitino's contract an additional four years, which would take him through the 2025-2026 season.
At 62-years-old, Pitino's new extension is essentially a "lifetime" contract, like the one Mike Krzyzewski signed with Duke in 2001. Pitino is 368-126 with Louisville and has won 722 games with five different college basketball programs.
According to the Courier-Journal, the extension ups Pitino's salary to $4.48 million next season $5.093 the year after and beyond. His bonuses include $7.5 million every three years beginning in 2017 if he stays at Louisville and $500,000 for National Championship titles.
"When we started discussing this about six weeks ago, I started going on my fingers how old I was," the newspaper quoted Pitino stating at a press conference. "I said, '[athletic director] Tom [Jurich], do you really think I'll live that long?'"
Pitino has guided Louisville to one National Championship victory, in 2013, but it was his second title overall after winning it all with Kentucky in 1996. Pitino has also won four conference tournament titles with Louisville: three in the Big East and one in the AAC.
A 2013 Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, Pitino is one of five active Division I men's basketball coaches to win at least 700 games.
"Any time we can lock up a Hall of Fame coach, a great coach and an incredible asset to our university," Jurich said at the press conference, "we want to take full advantage of it."