Former Gonzaga Director of Analytics Riccardo Fois Joins Knicks Coaching Staff

The former Gonzaga Director of Analytics, Riccardo Fois, is re-joining Mike Brown’s coaching staff, this time with the New York Knicks. Brown, a two-time NBA Coach of the Year, replaced Tom Thibodeau after taking New York to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Fois was a shooting guard at Pepperdine from 2007-08 after he moved to the United States from Italy. He began his post-playing career as a graduate assistant with the Waves from 2012-14 before he was then hired by the Zags. Fois was in Spokane from 2014-19, mostly dealing with video breakdown, evaluating player analytics, and assisting the coaching staff with day-to-day program operations. He’s credited for helping develop Domantas Sabonis, Zach Collins, Killian Tillie, and Rui Hachimura.

A new scene was needed for Fois, so he decided to join the Phoenix Suns as a player development coach. Two years later, he followed former Gonzaga assistant coach Tommy Lloyd down the state to Tucson to become an assistant coach for Arizona from 2021-24.

After his time back in college basketball, Fois made the jump back up to the NBA to join the Sacramento Kings as one of Brown’s right-hand men. Gonzaga’s coaching tree is one of the longest and expands far outward across the entirety of the sport.

Arden Cravalho is a Gonzaga University graduate from the Bay Area… Follow him on Twitter @a_cravalho