Xavier hires Richard Pitino as basketball coach
There will be more than one Pitino in the Big East next season
There will be more than one Pitino in the Big East next season.
Xavier hired Richard Pitino, the son of St. John's coach Rick Pitino, as its basketball coach on Tuesday night. The school had an opening after Sean Miller left to accept the Texas job on Monday.
Richard Pitino takes over the Xavier program after four years at New Mexico, where he led the Lobos to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances. New Mexico went 27-8 this season and was eliminated by Michigan State 71-63 in the second round of the NCAAs on Sunday.
“Xavier is one of the great brands in all of college basketball,” Richard Pitino said in a statement. “It has always been a dream of mine to coach in the Big East. The Cintas Center is going to be rocking. I can’t wait to get to work.”
The younger Pitino was the Mountain West Coach of the Year this season after the Lobos won the conference's regular-season title. He went 88-49 at New Mexico and has an overall mark of 247-186.
Xavier moved quickly after Chris Mack announced he would remain at the College of Charleston. Had Mack decided to return to Xavier, where he led the Musketeers for nine seasons, it would have marked the second time he followed Miller as coach at the Cincinnati school.
This will be Richard Pitino's fourth head coaching job. He was at Florida International in 2012-13 before spending eight seasons at Minnesota.
“He has proven himself as a winner as a head coach at New Mexico and has an impressive resume of success before that as a head coach at Minnesota. His success as an assistant stood out, especially his time working for his father, Rick Pitino, at Louisville, and Billy Donovan at Florida,” athletic director Greg Christopher said in a statement.
“We had tremendous interest in our head coaching position. It became clear that Richard was the right fit for Xavier to take us to championship success in the Big East and NCAA Tournament.”
Richard Pitino said last week a school's level of investment in the basketball program would be a big factor in potentially leaving New Mexico for another job.
“Do I think that NIL and rev share (revenue sharing) is everything? No, I don’t, but if you don’t have it, you have no chance,” he said. “I think the balance of power has greatly, greatly shifted, and those conversations, any coach has with any AD or whatever, that’s going to be the first thing is, what’s the investment looking like and what will it be down the road? This landscape is crazy. Coaches are still getting fired for not winning enough games.”
The move means father and son will coach against each other at least twice every season in the Big East. They have squared off four times before, including this season when St. John's beat New Mexico at Madison Square Garden in November.
Rick Pitino was the 2024-25 Big East Coach of the Year after the 72-year-old Hall of Famer guided the Johnnies to their first outright regular-season conference championship in 40 years.
The elder Pitino traveled from New York to Cleveland to attend his son's game on Sunday. St. John’s, the No. 2 seed in the West Region, lost to Arkansas 75-66 on Saturday in Providence, Rhode Island.
Richard Pitino — who will be 43 when next season begins — inherits a Musketeers program that regained its stride during Miller's second stint at the school. Xavier has made the NCAA Tournament two of the past three years, including a 22-12 mark this season. By rallying past Texas in the First Four, the 11th-seeded Musketeers advanced into the main bracket before losing to No. 6 seed Illinois 86-73 in the first round.
After an up-and-down tenure at Minnesota, Pitino experienced a renaissance at New Mexico. He led the program to its first consecutive March Madness appearances since 2013-14.
Last Friday’s 75-66 victory over Marquette was the Lobos’ first win in the tournament since 2012.
“I would say now more so than younger in my career, I understand it’s not about an out-of-bounds play or a turnover. It’s about the program that you build,” Richard Pitino said. “I think when you’re a young head coach in the Big Ten especially, you’re just trying to kind of establish yourself. Humbly speaking, I’m not worried about that anymore. I’m just worried about doing my very best to help my players and my staff to help put them in the best positions possible.”
Whether a couple of his former players at New Mexico join him remains to be seen. Lobos guards Donovan Dent, the Mountain West Player of the Year, and Tru Washington entered the transfer portal on Tuesday.
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