Xavier Beat: Richard Pitino Ready To Take Over One of the ‘Great Brands’ in College Basketball

CINCINNATI — A wild and crazy 12 hours led to a new era in Xavier basketball emerging Tuesday night.

Xavier University Vice President and Director of Athletics Greg Christopher confirmed that Richard Pitino will replace Sean Miller as the men’s basketball coach, bringing a father-son dynamic to the Big East.

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

Since Sunday night, when Miller announced he was leaving Xavier for a second time to take over at Texas, it was assumed that Chris Mack would be the front-runner to return to Cincinnati to take over the Musketeers for a second time. Mack traveled to Cincinnati from Charleston, where he was head coach for one season after returning to coaching after a two-year hiatus.

But late Monday evening, Mack informed Xavier he was pulling out after the two sides reportedly had reached agreement and announced on social media that he would be returning to Charleston for a second season in 2025-26.

Almost instantly, when Mack pulled out, Richard Pitino called Xavier and let them know he would be interested in taking the job in Cincinnati. What’s fascinating about this is that Pitino was reportedly in Philadelphia meeting with Villanova and had a verbal agreement with the Wildcats to take over for Kyle Neptune. Villanova has a tremendous NIL fund in place, resources Sean Miller would privately lament that Xavier did not possess.

But there was something that Pitino liked more about Xavier than Villanova. That’s what will be fascinating to find out when Pitino addresses the media, either this Friday or next week when Xavier introduces him.

“Xavier is one of the great brands in all of college basketball,” said Pitino. “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.”

Villanova, meanwhile, is left holding their bag of cash. The Wildcats have been rumored to be in on Kevin Willard of Maryland, Pitino, Chris Collins of Northwestern, Porter Moser of Oklahoma and Mick Cronin of UCLA. It’s Wild, Wild West time in college basketball when a school like Villanova is struggling to find their coach while the transfer portal has been open three days.

As for the 42-year-old Pitino, he led the Lobos to a 27-8 overall record and the second round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament with a first-round win over Marquette. He led New Mexico to a 17-3 league record and the 2024-25 Mountain West Conference Regular Season Championship. Pitino leaves New Mexico after four seasons in Albuquerque.

This is a great win for Xavier. Finding a coach of Pitino’s obvious pedigree doesn’t come down the pike every day. What’s in it for Pitino beyond the salary? The chance to coach in the Big East, the chance to coach against dad twice a year and access to elite talent that comes with coaching at Xavier. He’s going to have to work that portal like every other coach. But he’s young and dynamic and already has 13 years of head coaching experience under his belt.

In the 2023-24 season, Pitino led New Mexico to a 26-10 record, winning the Mountain West Championship and returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014. The Lobos downed Air Force, and three NCAA Tournament teams, Boise State, Colorado State and San Diego State, on consecutive days in Las Vegas to become the first team in Mountain West history to win the conference tournament by winning four games.

Pitino came to New Mexico after an eight-year stint at Minnesota, where he led the Gophers to two NCAA Tournament berths and an NIT Championship. Pitino was named 2017 Big Ten Coach of the Year on both the coaches and media teams as well as by the Associated Press, while also being also being named the 2017 NABC District 7 Coach of the Year. He began his head coaching career at Florida International in the 2012-13 season.

Pitino has coached 13 seasons as a head coach, having won an NIT Championship and making four NCAA Tournament appearances. That success came after seven years as an assistant coach that included five NCAA appearances, including one Final Four appearance and four trips to the Elite Eight, three conference titles and two 30-win seasons.

Pitino’s success isn’t just as a head coach, as he has been a part of several deep NCAA Tournament runs as an assistant and as an associate head coach. He spent two separate stints at Louisville coaching alongside his father Rick Pitino, who is now the head coach at Big East rival St. John’s. In 2011-12 as associate head coach, the Cardinals went 30-10, advancing all the way to the Final Four. His first stint at Louisville was from 2007-09, and both seasons ended in Elite Eight runs.

Between Louisville stops, Pitino spent two seasons at Florida coaching under Billy Donovan. In his first season with Florida, the Gators went 21-13 overall, making it to the NCAA Tournament. The following season in 2009-10, Florida won the SEC regular season championship and went 29-8 overall, advancing the Elite Eight.

Pitino has also had assistant coaching stops at Duquesne, Northeastern and the College of Charleston.