“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.”

“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.”

Pitino 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.

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 UNM 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.