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When he abruptly quit as head coach of the Boston Celtics in the middle of the 2001 season, Boston sports fans labeled him a quitter. But when his Louisville men's basketball team came from 20 points down in their "Elite Eight" game with West Virginia to win on Saturday, Cardinal coach Rick Pitino and his team appeared to be anything but a quitter.

The amazing comeback victory by the Cardinals re-established Pitino as one of the games greatest coaches, at least at the collegiate level. Adding another page to an already illustrious coaching resume, the win propelled Pitino's Louisville team to the 2005 NCAA Final Four. It will be the fifth Final Four of Pitino's career and the Louisville Cardinals will be the third different college program that he has taken to college basketball's premiere event.

The win did mark an major comeback for the slick-haired coach. Often labeled a maverick but a winner, Pitino fell on hard times in his second stint as an NBA coach. Returning to collegiate coaching four years ago, Pitino began erasing the bitter memories of a failed attempt to resurrect the NBA's signature team, the Boston Celtics.

His lack of success with the Celtics came as a complete surprise to everyone in the basketball world. From 1978 through 1997, Pitino had made the lengthy climb to the top of the coaching profession. He began his career at Boston University, a smaller Division I school with little prior basketball success. There, Pitino developed the program into a consistent small college competitor, his Terriers winning 91 of 142 games during a five year period.

That record helped Pitino gain an assistant coaching job in the NBA, a move that began a period of rapid changes that lead to his maverick label. After just two years in the NBA, the love for college coaching drew Pitino to Providence College and the Big East Basketball Conference.

His impact on the program was immediate. In just his second year at Providence, the fiery coach took the Friars to the first of Pitino's Final Four appearances Though that Friars team won 25 games, the tournament run came as a complete shock to many. Pitino’s team clearly lacked the talent of many others in the tournament, but winning with a unique pressing and frantic paced style that seemed to overcome his team's weaknesses, Pitino became the talk of the coaching profession.

Utilizing that performance as a launching pad, Pitino parlayed that success into a head coaching job with the New York Knicks, the team that he had served as an assistant coach for two years previously. Much like he did at Providence, Pitino had the Knicks among the NBA's elite is just his second season with that club, winning more than 60% of their regular season games and taking that team to the NBA playoffs.

But continuing his maverick style, he again left the NBA for the college game, opting for his fourth coaching job in six years and his fifth in the matter of just 11 years. Pitino took over a Kentucky team in 1989 that was in disarray. The Wildcats were on NCAA probation for violations, and the team lacked in talent and scholarships. Once again, in just his second season at the helm, Pitino had the Wildcats winning and back among college's top basketball programs.

This time, though, the maverick stayed put, beginning one of college basketball's finest runs ever. In eight years at Kentucky, his teams won 27 or more games six times and 30 or more three times. His Wildcats made college basketball's "Elite Eight" five times, the Final Four three times, and earned the 1996 NCAA National Championship. Overall, his teams won 219 games while losing only 50 over the eight year period.

But in 1997, at the top of the college coaching profession, Pitino was lured by a big contract and the chance to coach the NBA's most storied team, the Boston Celtics. The former Boston University Coach and U-Mass player seemed a great choice to Celtics ownership, both because of his former ties to the region and his ability to turn around basketball programs.

However, for the first time in Pitino's storied career, he proceeded to struggle in his role. In three and a half years with the team, Pitino's Celtics lost more often than they won. In fact, he lost more games in each of his three full seasons with the Celtics than he lost in his last six at Kentucky combined. Those teams never came close to earning an NBA playoff spot, the Celtics topping out at 36 wins in 1998 under Pitino, a number that contrasted vividly with his final year at Kentucky where the team won 35 games while playing only half as many games.

An exhausted Pitino resigned from the Celtics in mid-season in 2001, his ego and his reputation taking an enormous hit. The timing led to the quitter label, the lack of success only adding to the barrage of criticism.

However, the fiery coach was not to be out of work long. The Louisville Cardinals soon called and Pitino returned to the college game where he has once again turned around a moribund program. As he had done every place but Boston, by his second season at the helm the Cardinals were among college's most competitive teams, winning 25 of 32 games. This year his team has already won 33 games and if the team captures two more and the NCAA title, Pitino will match the 35 wins his team earned in his final year at Kentucky.

Clearly the quitter label hurt, but statistics indicate Pitino has always been one of the games finest collegiate coaches. He entered this season as the third winningest coach in NCAA tournament play among active coaches. Even prior to the 2005 run to the Final Four, Pitino's tourney record stood at 27 wins and just nine losses, a 75% winning percentage. The four wins under his belt in this year's tourney takes him to an amazing 31-9 in NCAA play.

With two possible games remaining, Pitino is on the verge of a collegiate legacy unlike any other, the chance to win a second NCAA title with another team from the State of Kentucky. Saturday's comeback was indeed storied, both for the Cardinals and their phenomenal coach.

Pitino is back where he belongs, as a coach at the NCAA Final Four.