Musketeers Beat: Why Every Cincinnati College Hoops Fan Should Pay Attention To Likely Historical Day Saturday at Cintas

CINCINNATI — These days come around only so often. When a hall of fame coach takes on his son in an effort to reach a career coaching milestone and an all-time Xavier great sees his number raised to the rafters inside Cintas Center, it’s a time to appreciate and celebrate the significance of the sport in the region.

In other words, there will be more than just a basketball game taking place when Rick Pitino leads St. John’s into battle with a Xavier team coached by his son, Richard, Saturday afternoon on Victory Parkway. Due to the incoming storm, the game has been moved up to a 1:30 p.m. start time (originally 2:30 p.m. ET) due to the forecasted incoming storm. Doors will open to ticketed fans as usual 90 minutes prior to tip, which will be noon. (The men’s game TV broadcast will be shown in its entirety on truTV and HBOMax. TNT will join the game in progress following the conclusion of the Georgetown at Providence game, which tips off at 12:30 p.m.)

Mother nature may impact this father-son showdown but she’s not about to stop the inevitable.

It will mark the fifth time the father and son have squared off against each other as head coaches, with the elder Pitino holding a 3-1 advantage over his son. The rivalry was ensured of a renewal in the Big East when Richard was hired by Xavier in the spring to replace Sean Miller, who left to take over Texas.

St. John’s (14-5, 7-1) enters Saturday’s game on a five-game winning streak while Xavier (11-8, 3-5) is playing less than 72 hours after suffering a crushing 94-93 loss at Creighton on Wednesday night. Xavier is also honoring one of its past great players, raising the No. 52 of former guard Tu Holloway to the rafters in a halftime ceremony.

With a win, Rick Pitino will become the fourth coach in Division I history with 900 career coaching wins, joining Mike Kzryzewski (1,202), Jim Boeheim (1,116) and Roy Williams (903). Pitino was actually made aware of the possibility of winning No. 900 against his son two weeks prior by St. John’s special athletic assistant and longtime Rick Pitino advisor Kenny Klein.

“Kenny Klein told me about four games ago,” Pitino said after his comeback Tuesday over Seton Hall gave him 899 wins. “He said, ‘If you keep winning, you could have your 900 game against your son.’ And I said, ‘What’s the chances of that happening, that you coach 900 games 50 years and your 900 game is against your son?’

“So I think that’s a big treat for me and the family. Either way, we know we’re going to have a difficult game against them because of their style of play. He’s doing a fabulous job, and so this is gonna be a lot of fun, great game. If we lose, I’ll leave my team in Cincinnati.”

Rick Pitino beat his son twice when he was coaching Louisville, once in 2012, Richard’s first as a Division I head coach at Florida International, and once in 2014 when Richard was head coach at Minnesota.

Pitino’s son, with 256 career wins in 14 seasons, has his own issues to worry about. On Wednesday, Xavier led by four in the final minute and by one after a missed free throw by Creighton’s Austin Swartz with 4.3 seconds left. But Swartz grabbed the loose ball rebound and banked in the game-winner as time expired for a 94-93 win over Xavier. Tre Carroll leads Xavier, averaging 17.3 points and 5.7 rebounds a game.

“It’s like any other game. I know there’s a storyline of my dad, this and that,” Richard said. “For me, it’s a home game against one of the best teams in the country. I’ve got to do my very best to not make it about that and make it solely on trying to put my guys in a position to beat a really good team.”

Richard broke through in 2022 when he was coaching New Mexico, and his Lobos beat his father’s Iona Gaels. Rick Pitino won the most recent meeting in 2024 when St. John’s got the better of New Mexico.

The Red Storm is led by senior forward Zuby Ejiofor, averaging 15.8 points and 7.3 rebounds a game.

“We’re going to approach the Xavier game with the same mindset and just go out there and do our jobs and try to come out with the victory,” Ejiofor said.

As for the Holloway jersey retirement ceremony, Xavier would certainly like to channel some of the clutch performances of his career in blue and white. Holloway becomes the ninth member of Xavier men’s and women’s hoops to have their number raised and retired. In 2024, Holloway was added to a list of three new names to be honored, including No. 5 Trevon Bluiett, a consensus Second Team All-America selection, women’s basketball All-Americans and WNBA lottery draft selections No. 11 Amber Harris and No. 53 Ta’Shia Phillips.

Holloway, who graduated in 2012, earned reputation as an elite clutch player and winner who led Xavier to four NCAA Tournament berths, including three Sweet 16 appearances. XU averaged 25 wins during his four-year career, posting a 100-38 (.725) overall mark. In addition, he was the part of three Atlantic 10 Conference Regular Season Champion teams.

“Just as hanging a championship banner is a symbol of excellence, honoring former players with retired jersey numbers is one of the highest honors a program can bestow,” Xavier Director of Athletic Greg Christopher said in a statement. “Each of these former Musketeer greats contributed to building the foundation of Xavier’s basketball programs.”

So much happening inside Cintas on a late January afternoon. Take time from your winter storm prep to take in what should be a phenomenal afternoon of pure basketball bliss. It should be a nice appetizer for what’s ahead in the next couple of months and hopefully take your mind off what’s coming on Sunday.