Richard Pitino Takes New Job
Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
The Minnesota Golden Gophers men's basketball team has a new head coach — 'one of us' U of M alum, Niko Medved — who was officially announced on Tuesday, just two days after leading his former team, the Colorado State Rams, to a second round defeat in the NCAA Tournament, at the hands of a Maryland buzzer-beater.
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Medved was hired to replace Ben Johnson, who was fired after his fourth season as head men's basketball coach at the University of Minnesota. In that time, Johnson accumulated a 56-71 overall record, which stands as the worst winning percentage (.441) of any men's basketball head coach to last more than one season since World War II, when Carl Nordly's Gophers went 17-23 between 1943 and 1944.
Ben Johnson's predecessor found success in New Mexico
But the University of Minnesota's men's basketball struggles predate Johnson's forgettable tenure as head coach. Prior to Ben taking over for the 2021-22 season, the Golden Gophers were coached for eight years by then 30-something, Richard Pitino, whose dad is known as one of the greatest basketball coaches in the sport's history.
Pitino went 141-123 at Minnesota, but failed to make the NCAA tournament in his last two seasons at the helm. Just in case you're counting, that makes it six college basketball seasons since the Minnesota Gophers have made the dance.
Credit: Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Of course, the same cannot be said about Pitino. Since Richard left Dinkytown and landed in the Mountain West Conference, as head coach of the New Mexico Lobos, he's thrived, posting an overall record of 88-49 at New Mexico, including three-straight 20+ win seasons and two-straight NCAA Tournament appearances.
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In 2024-25, Richard's Lobos went 27-8 and — much like his Mountain West rival Rams and now Gophers head coach Niko Medved — won their first round March Madness matchup 75-66 vs Marquette. New Mexico then fell to Michigan State in round two.
Richard Pitino lands head coaching job at Xavier
On Tuesday evening, Pitino was rewarded for his success down in the desert with the new head coaching job at Xavier University. Coincidentally, Xavier is where Ben Johnson was an assistant coach from 2018-2021, prior to being hired as Gophers head coach.
Wanna go even further down the rabbit hole of weird basketball connections? Before landing at Xavier, Johnson was one Richard Pitino's Gophers staff from assistants on the Gophers staff. Basketball is a small world, after all…
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Richard Pitino never got a fair shot at the University of Minnesota. Immediately upon being hired, and even after winning the NIT Tournament in his first season and making two NCAA Tournament appearances in three seasons from 2016-2019, Pitino was always seen by local media as an emergency Norwood Teague hire that was mostly based in nepotism.
Related: New Gophers MBB Coach Supposedly Bringing Talent with Him to Minnesota
Now, just four years after he left, those who chased him out of town are now clinging to hopes that another new coach can get this program back to where Richard Pitino had it, then hopefully beyond. Meanwhile, Pitino is now back in a traditional basketball power conference (Big East), ready to prove himself beyond his father's shadow, yet again.
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