Pitino, Calipari both share love for basketball — 'that's where similarities end'

Rick Pitino and John Calipari made sure not to provide any extra bulletin board material on Friday, but the pair of Hall of Fame coaches, who will meet Saturday when No. 2-seeded St. John's takes on No. 10 seed Arkansas with a ticket to the Sweet 16 on the line, were brutally honest when asked about their relationship.

"We don't know each other's wives or children. We're not really close friends," said Pitino, who is the first coach to take six different schools to the NCAA Tournament. "At a very young age, I knew him well when he was in Coraopolis, playing in Moon Township. I knew him well back then, but I don't think we have been to dinner one time in our lifetime. 

"We're both Italian, we both love the game. I think that's where the similarities end." 

While the two coaches might not be best friends, they are the only two coaches in NCAA Men's Basketball history to take three different teams to the Final Four. They each have two wins against each other in NCAA Tournament showdowns, and this could be their final encounter in the Big Dance to determine who takes the all-time series.

It's a script so surreal that Hollywood writers would have sent it back to the drawing board for edits to make it more believable. St. John's and Arkansas? Coached by Pitino and Calipari? It's the ultimate March Madness gift of drama from the basketball gods to have the two active winningest coaches in the sport meeting again on Saturday. 

Five years ago, all signs pointed to Pitino's time in college basketball being over when he was in Greece coaching Panathinaikos after getting fired from Louisville due to an FBI investigation into allegations of bribery in college basketball. The fact he's sitting as the head coach of a St. John's team