Rick Pitino Makes History vs. Son Richard But 'I Hate Getting Any Milestone Against Him'

St. John's head coach Rick Pitino moved up the all-time wins list on Monday night, but he would've preferred his latest victory had come against a different opponent.

The No. 17 Red Storm survived a tough test from Xavier, earning an 87-82 victory at Madison Square Garden to extend their win streak to 10 straight games. The win was Pitino's 904th of his legendary career, passing Roy Williams for third place in Division I history behind Mike Krzyzewski (1,202) and Jim Boeheim (1,116).

Still, Pitino admitted that defeating his son, Musketeers head coach Richard Pitino, is never easy, especially when making some history along the way.

"I hope we don't play them in the Big East tournament," Rick Pitino said, per the Associated Press. "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."

In the previous meeting between St. John's and Xavier, the Red Storm had to rally from a 16-point deficit in the second half for an 88-83 road victory, which was Pitino's 900th career win. The 73-year-old is now 5-1 in coaching matchups against his son, with his lone loss coming when Richard led New Mexico past Iona during the 2022-23 season.

"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," the elder Pitino said. "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 victory."