Xavier hires Richard Pitino: Why he fits in the Big East, just like his father

Xavier is hiring Richard Pitino as its next men’s basketball coach, the school announced Tuesday night.

“We are excited to welcome Richard Pitino as our new men’s basketball head coach,” Xavier 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.”

Pitino, the son of Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino, just completed his fourth season as the head coach at New Mexico, which he has led to the NCAA Tournament two years running. The Lobos were eliminated in the second round Sunday with a 71-63 loss to Michigan State.

In 13 seasons as head coach, including stops at Florida International and Minnesota before joining New Mexico, Pitino is 247-186 (.570) with four NCAA Tournament appearances.

He will replace Sean Miller, who is leaving Xavier to take the vacant head coach job at Texas.

Why Richard Pitino is a fit for the Big East

Pitino, 42, makes all kinds of sense at Xavier.

Aside from this move bringing him to a basketball-only program in the Big East, where he will face off against his father at St. John’s at least twice a year, the younger Pitino has improved and impressed as a coach in his four seasons at New Mexico. After an up-and-down eight seasons at Minnesota, which has proven a tough place for consistent success, Pitino took over a New Mexico program that went 6-16 the year before his arrival. By Year 2, Pitino had notched a 22-win season. He built on that by guiding the Lobos to the past two NCAA Tournaments, including a second-round appearance last weekend. It’s the first time New Mexico has made back-to-back tournaments since Steve Alford did it in 2012 and 2013.

The Pitino bloodlines were apparent at New Mexico this year, where the Lobos played with one of the fastest tempos in the country and had a top-20 defense. Pitino also recruited and developed Donovan Dent, the Mountain West Player of the Year, who happened to enter the transfer portal earlier Tuesday.

Pitino’s turnaround at New Mexico, a program that had scant success since joining the Mountain West in 1999, and his familiarity with the Big East make for an intriguing pairing at Xavier, a school that invests heavily in hoops and where reaching the NCAA Tournament is a baseline expectation. And the conference showdowns against his father will make for appointment viewing.

(Top photo: Nick Cammett / Getty Images)