CINCINNATI — His phone buzzed with a response: “Just come to St. John’s.”
Richard Pitino, new head coach of Xavier men’s basketball, had landed at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport, in town for Game 3 of the American League Wild Card Series between the Boston Red Sox and his beloved New York Yankees.
He was going with his dad, Rick, the legendary basketball coach in his third season at nearby St. John’s, but Richard wasn’t sure where they were meeting — should he head to the house, to Yankee Stadium?
Instead, he made the quick trip across Queens, arriving at Carnesecca Arena, where dad and his team were finishing up an October practice.
“I’m like, this is weird. Should I be watching this?” Richard said. “I wasn’t taking notes or anything, but …”
There’s a new normal for these two basketball lifers, as a pair of Big East foes set to face off twice a year, angling for the same recruits, the same conference championship, the same NCAA Tournament bids. No more fellow coaches. Opposing coaches.
Rick, 73, has coached for more than 50 years at the NBA and college levels — with a brief, recruiting-scandal-induced sojourn into international hoops — and has a pair of NCAA national championships to his name. Richard, 43, started as a student manager at Providence, where his dad once coached, while pulling double-duty as an assistant at a nearby high school. Son even worked as an assistant under Dad at Louisville.
The two have faced off four times as head coaches, including last November, when Rick’s Red Storm toppled Richard and New Mexico, his previous school, just a few miles away at Madison Square Garden. Fans chanted “Who’s your daddy?” as the final seconds ticked off.
Then? A good-natured, nonconference one-off. Now?
“We have a Big East group chat, and I’ll see (Marquette’s) Shaka Smart respond, then (Creighton’s) Greg McDermott respond — then ‘Dad’ responds,” Richard said. “I’m like, Oh, my God. That part is definitely different.”
(For what it’s worth, Dad didn’t sweat his son’s practice pop-in: “I was more interested in what he thought of my players,” Rick said.)
Pitino is aware of the familial powder keg he nestled himself into, stepping into his father’s enormous shadow with the belief that he can coach his way out. It’s been that way since he was hired as the 29-year-old head coach at Florida International in 2012, and has followed him through stints at Minnesota and New Mexico.
The move to Albuquerque in 2021 did offer a fresh opportunity. Fired from Minnesota after eight seasons, Pitino was cast into the mid-major desert, taking on a Mountain West reno that was seven years removed from the program’s last NCAA Tournament appearance. While Rick was reviving St. John’s, his son built the Lobos into Mountain West champs, making the last two NCAA Tournaments in a name, image and likeness era designed to leave schools like New Mexico behind.
“He had to build a program from the ground up, and I thought that showed who he is,” said Xavier associate head coach Isaac Chew, who spent all four seasons on Pitino’s staff at New Mexico. “He was able to become Richard Pitino, and not so much Rick Pitino’s son.”
Pitino doesn’t shy away from his last name or the scrutiny that comes with it, opting instead to disarm any “nepo baby” accusations with sarcasm and self-awareness. Last month, before Big East media days, he tweeted: “It’s a dream come true for me to coach in the Big East. Can’t wait to spend the whole day answering questions about what it will be like to coach against my dad for the first time.”
Big East Media Day tomorrow. It’s a dream come true for me to coach in the Big East. Can’t wait to spend the whole day answering questions about what it will be like to coach against my dad for the first time 🤣
— Richard Pitino (@XUCoachPitino) October 20, 2025
But his run at New Mexico did mark a shift from benefit of the doubt to proof of concept. Not enough to escape that paternal shadow just yet, though enough to draw interest from multiple schools this offseason, including Xavier.
Despite sharing a city with the University of Cincinnati, a larger school and storied hoops program, the Musketeers have established their own reputable history — reaching 18 of the last 24 NCAA Tournaments — albeit with a program-defining ceiling. Xavier is tied for the most all-time NCAA Tournament wins (31) and second-most tournament appearances (30) in Division I without ever reaching a Final Four.
Surely there’s a metaphor in there: A program and coach striving to uphold, shed and exceed their pasts, all at the same time. But Pitino is focused on what comes next.
“I do understand the storyline and try to be as respectful as possible,” he said. “But I also feel I’ve earned the right for people to start to talk about my career a little bit.”
Two days after New Mexico’s second-round tournament loss, Xavier athletic director Greg Christopher was in Albuquerque, sitting in Richard’s home office, when both of their phones nearly combusted. Both agreed to take a quick peek.
“Just so you know, I did not take the Villanova job,” Richard told Christopher, looking up with a smirk.
A social media account had posted a fake report that Villanova was hiring Pitino, and the “news” was getting frantically passed around.
Pitino was a finalist at Villanova along with Maryland’s Kevin Willard, who eventually got the job, and received interest from VCU and NC State. Not that Christopher needed any extra motivation. Pitino was at the top of his list when Sean Miller was announced as the coach at Texas the day prior. After a few in-depth phone conversations, Christopher hopped a flight out west and offered the job within 15 minutes of arriving at Pitino’s house. They agreed to a six-year deal soon after.
“In this NIL era, creating a culture and cohesiveness that holds a program together is really important,” Christopher said of what impressed him most about Pitino’s tenure at New Mexico.
Pitino was happy in Albuquerque. So were his wife and three kids. The Lobos were winning. “But I always thought, if a Big East job opens, I would strongly consider it,” he said.
Richard Pitino led New Mexico to a Mountain West title and the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season. (Ian Maule / Getty Images)
The Big East has the benefit of being a high-major basketball conference without power-conference football. Basketball doesn’t have to compete with football for direct revenue sharing with its athletes, as allowed under the House v. NCAA settlement. Big East athletic departments can’t reach the $20.5 million annual cap without football revenues, but the top programs — UConn, St. John’s, Villanova — are dedicating near or north of $10 million in revenue sharing to their men’s basketball rosters, according to industry sources granted anonymity to discuss financial details. Most Power 4 teams are having to scratch and claw for $4 million to $5 million internally, then supplement with outside funding.
“Right now, every Power 4 AD in the country is pissing off their basketball coach,” Pitino said. “But we don’t have to share that money with football.”
The Musketeers had a 40-year history of hiring “within the family,” a coaching tree that extended from Pete Gillen, to Skip Prosser, to Thad Matta, to Miller, to Chris Mack, to Travis Steele, and back to Miller. Pitino didn’t anticipate them deviating from that formula, but when they did, it wasn’t hard to get to “yes.” Xavier has made nine trips to the Sweet 16 since 1990 and three Elite Eights since 2004. Average attendance is more than 10,000 for Xavier home games, regularly filling Cintas Center, despite an enrollment of roughly 5,000 students. It’s a small Catholic school with ample support in a big Catholic city.
It’s also a bigger job than New Mexico, and one that gets Pitino closer to his four siblings, extended family and East Coast roots. Pitino’s accent doesn’t rival his dad’s thick Long Island warble, but he was born in Boston, went to school in Massachusetts and spent summers in New York. His own Big East ties stretch back to his college days at Providence, on top of having a well-versed sounding board.
“I told him that Xavier was the best of the jobs he was looking at,” Rick Pitino said. “Now, they don’t have the NIL that the top teams in the league do, but they have everything else.”
The final decision was Richard’s — “I’m married with three kids. I took the job without asking him.” — but he made note of his dad’s endorsement. And inherited some of his candor. One can imagine that a childhood (and five years as an assistant) under Rick Pitino didn’t come with much sugarcoating. Neither does Richard’s assessment of the current state of college hoops.
“The biggest thing is rev share number, NIL number,” Pitino said. “If you want to win, tell me what my budget is to put together a team.”
Xavier is pacing behind the top of the Big East in that domain. Industry sources with knowledge of the program and conference told The Athletic the Musketeers invested roughly $6 million in revenue sharing for the 2025-26 season, which likely puts them in the bottom half of the 11-team league. It’s a hierarchy Richard witnessed first-hand during that early October trip to Queens.
“Richard will build a winner at Xavier because Xavier is used to winning, but the NIL is a different breed of cat,” Rick said. “If you don’t have the same backing that Creighton or St. John’s or Villanova or Connecticut has, then you’re up against it.”
It’s part of why Christopher hired Pitino, believing in his on-court track record as well as his off-court ability to rally support, financial and emotional. He also understands the process will require uphill work, even after the Musketeers went 22-12 and reached the tournament last season. Pitino had to completely overhaul the roster, with one returning player. After grinding for eight seasons in the Big Ten, Richard upped his team’s tempo at New Mexico. It’s a pace he’s bringing to Xavier.
The team is off to a wobbly 6-3 start, with losses to Santa Clara, Iowa and Georgia but a nice win over West Virginia. It hosts Creighton in its Big East opener on Dec. 17, and St. John’s comes to town on Jan. 24, followed by a return trip to MSG on Feb. 9.
“Leading up to the St. John’s game, the media increase, the fan increase, I’ll have to deal with that,” Pitino said.
The Pitinos will play each other twice this season — after Rick got the best of Richard last season when St. John’s played New Mexico. (Wendell Cruz / Imagn Images)
Big picture, Xavier has great expectations, with March Madness as the baseline. That will be a tough standard to uphold in Pitino’s first season, but he’s clear-eyed about what it will take.
“Since the NIL era started, the Big East has averaged about five-six teams in the NCAA Tournament every year,” Pitino said. “So my goal is for Xavier to be in the top five or six in the conference in NIL, and I think we’re a little bit below that right now.”
“Fil, you fouled him like nine times!” Richard shouted at senior forward Filip Borovicanin, pausing an October practice. “He traveled too, but you can’t foul him.”
Standing near midcourt at Cintas Center — hair slicked back, arms crossed behind him, lips pursed — the resemblance is unmistakable. But Richard is not Pitino 2.0. There are pieces of his father, but also of Billy Donovan, who worked under Rick at Kentucky and who Richard worked for at Florida. There are lessons Richard learned at FIU and Minnesota and New Mexico, a mosaic of successes and failures, ideas borrowed and hatched.
Borovicanin is one of two Xavier players who followed the coaching staff from New Mexico, a versatile 6-foot-9 Serbian who had never visited Cincinnati before transferring. He likes how Richard empowers his players on the court, but also how the coach’s personality sets the tone.
“He really knows when to push a player and when to make a joke to help a player relax,” said Borovicanin, averaging 8.1 points and a team-high 7.6 rebounds. “Sometimes in games he’ll make a joke to get everyone to settle down. That’s a big part of helping us to play freely.”
The first true stress test of Xavier’s Pitino Era comes this Friday, when the rival Bearcats visit for the Crosstown Shootout. Pitino is a Boston-born Yankees fan, someone who came of age on both sides of the Kentucky-Louisville basketball rivalry; he understands what a badge of courage it’s been for the Musketeers in recent decades. Xavier has claimed nine of the last 12 Shootouts, and the Bearcats haven’t won consecutive meetings since the 1995-96 season.
The other major challenge is more totemic, Xavier’s final frontier: making a Final Four.
“That’s what is motivating everybody,” Christopher said. “We all understand the impact that could have on the entire institution.”
Plenty of programs have tried and failed to reach a Final Four. None has had as many chances and come as agonizingly close as Xavier, the Sisyphus of March Madness. As college basketball enters this next iteration, that boulder will only get heavier. And more expensive.
“We have a lot of work to do there,” Pitino said. “But what we do have is a great university with really supportive people who understand that and want to be a player in this.”
It’s both the blessing and burden Richard Pitino inherits. Add it to the list.