St. John's Rick Pitino passes Roy Williams for third in wins - ESPN

NEW YORK — Rick Pitino reached another milestone Monday night at the expense of his son.

It certainly wasn't easy, though. In fact, two of his toughest wins lately have come against his own flesh and blood — and nothing could make the Hall of Fame coach more proud.

Zuby Ejiofor scored six of his 25 points in overtime and No. 17 St. John's outlasted pesky Xavier 87-82 at Madison Square Garden for its 10th consecutive victory. With his 904th career win on the court, Pitino passed Roy Williams for third place in Division I history behind Mike Krzyzewski (1,202) and Jim Boeheim (1,116).

It was Pitino's second comeback victory in 17 days over his son, Richard, the first-year coach of the Musketeers. In the previous meeting, the elder Pitino earned his 900th win when the Red Storm rallied from a 16-point deficit in the second half for an 88-83 victory at Xavier.

«I hope we don't play them in the Big East tournament,» Rick Pitino said. «I think my son's brilliant. I'm proud of him. I hate getting any milestone against him — but I go away tonight saying my son's a hell of a coach.… To say my son's a great coach is much more pleasing to me than any number of victories.»

Rick Pitino improved to 5-1 in coaching matchups against Richard, whose lone win against his dad came in 2022-23 when New Mexico beat Iona at home.

Fathers are 21-3 overall in such Division I games.

«In two games against them, he's totally outcoached me, and their staff outcoached us. We could not guard them. We could not stop them in their offense. They got us in bad switches. They executed,» said Rick Pitino, 73.

«All the credit goes to Richard, his staff, his players. They've outplayed us twice, but we just gutted it out in the final minutes to come away with a