Rick Pitino came home Friday night.

Nearly three decades after leading Kentucky to the 1996 national championship, Pitino took the floor at Rupp Arena and was cheered loudly by fans during Kentucky's Big Blue Madness event.

Pitino, now the coach at St. John's, wore a Kentucky sweater when he returned to campus. As an opposing coach at Louisville, he traveled to Rupp Arena several times but never enjoyed the warm welcome he received on Friday nights, an opportunity that arose when Kentucky hired Mark Pope, the captain of the 1996 Pitino-coached team, in March , committed.

Surrounded by some of his former players, an emotional Pitino took a moment to compose himself after grabbing the microphone.

“I’m so happy to be back,” he said. “I said in coaching, before I got it under control, that I wanted to go back to Camelot again. There's no way I could go back better. This is one of the best evenings I've had in a long time because I visited all my players who made me happy every day for eight years.

Leading up to Friday's reunion, it was a tumultuous journey for Pitino with the Kentucky fan base. In 1997, he received a record 10-year, $70 million contract as coach of the Boston Celtics, a year after winning a national title at Kentucky. But after a tumultuous time in the NBA, Pitino resigned as Celtics coach and agreed to take the job at Kentucky rival Louisville in 2001 after Denny Crum left.

At his introductory press conference, Pitino said one of his biggest concerns about taking the Louisville job was the backlash he would expect from Kentucky fans. He was right. When John Calipari took over as Wildcats coach in 2009, the Kentucky-Louisville rivalry became heated again.

In 2012, before Louisville's Final Four matchup against Kentucky, Pitino called the rivalry “pure hate.” And after a loss to the Wildcats at Rupp Arena in 2015, he was accused of making an obscene gesture toward the crowd. Pitino denied these claims despite a video suggesting otherwise.

This bitter story made his return on Friday evening even more surprising. But Pitino has served as a mentor to Pope since he agreed to replace Calipari, who transferred to Arkansas after a difficult four-year stretch. And his connection to Pope, as well as Calipari's lukewarm departure from the school, seemed to temper resentment on both sides.

Pitino told the Kentucky crowd Friday night that Pope would lead Kentucky – which has suffered two first-round exits in the last three NCAA Tournaments – to “greatness.”

“And now we can get excited about someone for whom that Kentucky name is crucial,” Pitino said. “It's not about Pope. It's not about Pope. You'll never hear him say that. The most selfless, humble young man I have ever coached in my life. One of the greatest examples of what Kentucky basketball is all about.” “Mark Pope will lead you to greatness in every sense of the word.”