Richard Pitino relishes challenges ahead at Xavier

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CINCINNATI (AP) — 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 on Tuesday. With Xavier’s past track record 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.

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“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.

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“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…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/richard-pitino-relishes-challenges-ahead-235200150.html

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Publish date : 2025-04-01 23:52:00

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