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Richard Pitino has been named the next head coach at Xavier.
Pitino replaces Sean Miller, who left Xavier to take the Texas job over the weekend. The son of legendary coach Rick Pitino, he and his father will now compete against each other in the Big East for the foreseeable future. Rick Pitino just finished his 2nd season as the head coach at St. John’s.
“We are excited to welcome Richard Pitino as our new men’s basketball head coach,” athletic director Greg Christopher said in a statement. “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. 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.”
Pitino joins Xavier after bringing New Mexico to the Round of 32 this past weekend. The Lobos made a run at a Sweet 16 appearance, but were unable to get past No. 2-seeded Michigan State. This was Pitino’s second straight appearance with New Mexico.
Previously, Pitino coached at Minnesota and FIU. He was fired by the Golden Gophers after the 2020-21 season but he made the NCAA Tournament twice with the program. Pitino’s replacement at Minnesota, Ben Johnson, posted 1 season above .500 before being fired earlier this month.
Pitino is 247-186 overall as a head coach.
“Xavier is one of the great brands in all of college basketball,” 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.”
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
