Louisville coach Rick Pitino has won induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, a source told ESPNNewYork.com on Friday. Pitino, 60, will be introduced with the rest of the 2013 Hall of Fame class Monday before a national championship game that his Cardinals will be looking to play in.
Pitino's Cardinals will face Wichita State in Saturday's semifinals, and the winner will face the survivor of the Syracuse-Michigan game that follows. The coach is appearing in his seventh Final Four, and he's the only coach to have officially taken three schools to the national semifinals (John Calipari's trips with Massachusetts and Memphis were both vacated by the NCAA as part of infractions.)
Pitino won the national title with Kentucky in 1996. His collegiate career record stands at 662-239.
"It would mean a lot to me and my family," Pitino told ESPN recently of a possible induction, "but it really exemplifies what I've done for athletes and coaches. And if that day comes, it would mean a lot to share with them. So it's not something I think about, but it's something I would be very, very proud of."
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