CINCINNATI — Richard Pitino said he needed the right situation to come along for him to leave New Mexico.
He ended up getting one in an unlikely spot.
Pitino was introduced as Xavier’s new coach Tuesday. With Xavier’s history of hiring coaches who were former assistants or who had ties to the program, Pitino thought his chances of getting a call from athletic director Greg Christopher would be slim until it happened last week.
“It always works out this way. You may have a list of some jobs you may think you may get a call on. And then out of nowhere comes one where, like, ‘wow, this would be amazing.’ And that was Xavier,” Pitino said during a news conference.
It is the first time since Thad Matta’s arrival in 2000 that Xavier has hired a coach without previous ties to the program. Sean Miller, who left to accept the Texas job on March 17, was promoted in 2004 after Matta left for Ohio State. Miller led the program for five seasons before leaving for Arizona, and then came back for three seasons in 2022.
Chris Mack and Travis Steele were also former assistants. Ironically, Pitino was quickly hired after Mack announced he would remain at the College of Charleston.
Pitino said his father, St. John’s coach Rick Pitino, encouraged him to stay at New Mexico until Xavier entered the picture, even if it meant being in the same conference and playing each other twice a year.
“He saw the way the community embraced me in Albuquerque, how much we were winning, and he saw how happy I was. When Xavier called, he changed his tune,” Richard Pitino said. “I think that the fit is really good. I just resonate with this type of community and very, very comfortable with it. I can tell you there was no bigger fan of taking Xavier than my dad.”
Pitino returns to the Big East — where he was a student at Providence College and an assistant at Louisville — 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 before it was eliminated by Michigan State 71-63 in the second round.
The 42-year old 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.
Christopher said the reason Pitino stood out as a candidate was how he rebounded at New Mexico after being fired at Minnesota. Pitino became a head coach in the Big Ten at age 30. He led the Golden Gophers for eight seasons — including an NIT championship in his first season in 2014-15 as well as two trips to the NCAA tournament — but was fired after two straight losing campaigns.
“It’s very clear he’s hungry and incredibly competitive. Some of what fuels that drive is how he’s been humbled. That was an important factor to me,” Christopher said of Pitino. “How you handle adversity is really telling and we all face challenges. Handled the right way, adversity makes you better. And that is what’s happened with Richard.”
Pitino is looking to bring the same aggressive style on both sides of the court that he had at New Mexico. It’s also not much different from what Miller ran as both coaches like to run.
On offense, the Lobos averaged 81.1 points, which led the Mountain West and was 26th in Division I. They averaged 16.2 fast-break points, third best in Division I.
Defensively, New Mexico forced 15.2 turnovers per game, 14th in Division I.
“It’s not real hard to sell a vision of we don’t want to run a bunch of set plays and walk the ball up the court. Not as many set plays, and honestly, it’s similar to what they ran with coach Miller ran here in the past. We talked a lot about it,” Pitino said. “It’s hard, but it’s a fun way to play.”
Pitino’s first task will be rebuilding Xavier’s roster, which has only two scholarship players remaining after Miller’s departure and the opening of the transfer portal. Pitino is bringing most of his staff from New Mexico.
“It’s very challenging to build a whole roster. It’s way more doable now in the current landscape than ever before, but we’re going to be patient,” he said.
