Report: Richard Pitino of New Mexico Is Considering a Louisville Position

The former head coach of the Cardinals, Rick Pitino’s son, is a strong contender to succeed his father.

Louisville, Kentucky A new candidate has entered the race for the head coaching position of Louisville men’s basketball, and for a variety of reasons, Cardinals supporters are highly acquainted with this individual.

Richard Pitino, the head coach of New Mexico, “has had conversations with Louisville about its vacant coaching position,” as reported by Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated.

In his third season with New Mexico, which ended with a 26-10 record and a Mountain West Conference Tournament victory, Pitino is a recent graduate. In the end, UNM lost to Clemson in the NCAA Tournament’s first round.

Naturally, Rick Pitino, the former head coach of Louisville who led the Cardinals from 2001 to 2017, is the father of Pitino. Richard was also Rick’s assistant coach at UofL from 2007 to 2009; following two years as an assistant at Florida under Billy Donovan, Richard was named associate head coach for Louisville’s 2011–12 Final Four campaign.

One of the few individuals vying to become Louisville’s next head coach is Richard Pitino. Three head coaches—South Florida’s Amir Abdur-Rahim, Seton Hall’s Shaheen Holloway, and College of Charleston’s Pat Kelsey—were reportedly UofL’s next targets to pursue shortly after FAU head coach Dusty May decided to accept the Michigan position.

Following his solitary Pitino ascended the coaching ranks by leading FIU for the 2012–13 season after serving as the associate head coach at the University of Louisville. Following an 18-14 season in his first year with the Panthers, he quickly moved to Minnesota, where he led the team for eight seasons before being fired and taking over in New Mexico.

As the head coach of the Golden Gophers, Pitino went 141-123, with two NCAA Tournament berths, an NIT championship in his first year, and a Big Dance victory over Louisville in Chris Mack’s rookie season in 2019. As a head coach, he is 221-178 overall, including 61-41 with the Lobos at the moment.

On March 13, just one day after Louisville’s ACC Tournament season-ending loss to NC State, the team formally dismissed former head coach Kenny Payne. Payne had a 12-52 record in his two years as an undergraduate at Louisville, making his time there nothing short of a complete failure. This comprises 0-19 in Quad 1 NET games, 1-28 in road/neutral site games, and 5-35 in ACC regular season games.