Rick Pitino and Bill Self finally meet again when St. John’s faces Kansas in NCAA Tournament

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Rick Pitino and Bill Self have racked up a combined 1,769 victories with consistent excellence at every stop in their long college basketball coaching careers. They're also two of only three active coaches to win multiple national titles.

Yet during their decades on benches from Providence to Tulsa and far beyond, Pitino and Self had somehow coached against each other only once.

"And he sent us home crying," Pitino said with a grin Saturday, recalling Kansas' 96-83 win over his Iona team at a tournament in Florida in November 2021.

These icons of their profession finally meet again Sunday - and for the first time on the NCAA Tournament stage - when Pitino's revitalized St. John's (29-6) takes on Self's perennially powerful Jayhawks (24-10) for a spot in the East Region's Sweet 16.

At 73 years old, Pitino said this week that he's coaching every game at St. John's as if it's his last. Self is a mere 63, but he also realizes the importance of focusing on the present after his health concerns in recent years.

Both took time out from their preparations at Viejas Arena to praise each other.

"There's so many great coaches out there, but they have a tough time standing the test of time," Pitino said. "Bill has stood the test of time every single year. ... He's great at everything he does."

"The coaches that are so impressive to me are the coaches that coached without a 3-point line and then became efficient with the 3-point line," Self said. "(Who coached) without a shot clock, then became one of the best with the shot clock. Always evolving with the game. And I think (Pitino) has done that as well as anybody maybe ever has."

Pitino entered the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013, and Self joined him in 2017. Pitino is third in college hoops history with 914 career victories, and Self is 12th with 855.

The only other active coach with multiple national titles is UConn's Dan Hurley - whose Huskies are in the other half of this East bracket, facing UCLA in Philadelphia on Sunday.

Pitino and Self have already won everything, yet they're both driven to create chances for their current players to experience it - and St. John's against Kansas would be a compelling matchup even without this coaching collision.

Self agrees with the notion that St. John's should have received a higher seed than No. 5 after its spectacular 19-1 finish to claim the Big East regular-season and tournament titles. The Johnnies then routed Northern Iowa in their opener Friday.

"Certainly they're as hot as any team in the field," Self said.

While its regular season wasn't amazing, Kansas is loaded with talent as usual - and Pitino thinks the Jayhawks could be one of the few teams capable of besting the Johnnies' power and strength in the post.

"They're certainly extremely talented, and it'll be interesting to see how we combat their size," Pitino said.

Zuby Ejiofor, the Johnnies' Big East player of the year, gets his first chance to play against the school he left in 2023.

Ejiofor joined the defending national champion Jayhawks out of high school in Texas, but didn't play much. Self said he had to split Ejiofor's already meager minutes with Ernest Udeh, who plays a similar game.

"We love Zuby," Self said. "We didn't want him to leave, but we're really happy for his success. We just hope it doesn't come against us. But we love everything he's done."

Speaking of compelling coaches, Mick Cronin has a blunt message for anyone perturbed by sideline theatrics during the heat of the game: "Get a life."

The UCLA coach is infamous for some of college basketball's most animated meltdowns - most recently in February, when he sent center Steven Jamerson II to the locker room late in a blowout loss after he committed a hard foul.

Cronin apologized to Jamerson for the embarrassment.

But as for the rest of his conduct on the sideline? No way.

He believes it's part of the way the most successful coaches at the most high-profile schools are wired to behave to get the results. Cronin led the Bruins to the 2021 Final Four while making the tournament in five of the last six years.

"You want to win big? But you think Coach Hurley is not supposed to be intense, but you want to win? Come on, man," Cronin said. "We're not coaching Little League, buddy. Everybody doesn't get an at-bat. Come on, man. Paying us a lot of money to win games."

Indeed, the real show in Sunday's second-round game between seventh-seeded UCLA and No. 2 UConn could come on the bench.

Hurley, who won back-to-back national titles with the Huskies, has long had a combative history with officials.

Earlier this month, the Big East fined Hurley $25,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct. Hurley approached John Gaffney and got his chest next to the official's right shoulder while voicing his displeasure. Hurley said he never bumped into Gaffney, though some replays suggested otherwise.

Hurley has led the Huskies to a 30-win season and a No. 2 seed - albeit after getting routed by St John's in the Big East tournament final.

Cronin and Hurley are both sons of high school basketball coaches, and some of those competitive - often combustible - traits are simply part of them now.

"It's so personal for coaches like me and Mick, which is where you see, at times, emotional reactions to things that happen on the court," Hurley said. "Because it truly feels like, personally, it's your world, your team. The outcome of the game, it manifests itself sometimes in how we behave."