Richard Pitino was SURPRISED to see his Dad in the Big East Coach Group Chat | College Basketball

Summary

Podcast Summary: Eye On College Basketball

Episode: Richard Pitino was SURPRISED to see his Dad in the Big East Coach Group Chat
Date: October 22, 2025
Hosts: Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander
Guest: Richard Pitino, Head Coach, Xavier

---

Episode Overview

This episode features an insightful and lighthearted conversation with Richard Pitino, newly appointed head coach at Xavier University. The discussion highlights Pitino’s transition to Xavier, reflections on career choices, expectations in his first year, the unique basketball culture at his new school, his coaching influences, and a humorous take on his experience joining the Big East—especially encountering his father, Rick Pitino, in the league’s official coaches’ group chat.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Pitino’s Morning Routine & Adjusting to Xavier

[01:12–01:52]

• Richard Pitino shares that he’s become a “5am get up” person, seeking quiet time before his kids wake up.
• Adjusting to the new job and city, Pitino draws comparisons between Xavier and Providence College, emphasizing Xavier’s dedicated basketball culture.
• On moving to a school without a football program:
  Quote:

  “Working at a school with no football is the biggest dramatic change... everybody's all in on basketball like they're normally all in on football.” (Richard Pitino, 02:03)

Community, Rivalries, and Local Identity

[02:58–03:41]

• Pitino observes the passion of Xavier alumni, noting many still live in the area and compare the Xavier-Cincinnati rivalry to Kentucky-Louisville.
• The intensity and pride of the community are evident, making the move to Xavier appealing.

On the Xavier-Cincinnati Rivalry

[03:41–03:56]

• In a tongue-in-cheek moment, Pitino jokes about his (non-existent) hatred for Cincinnati coach Wes Miller:

  "I really don't like him a lot. I hate him, actually. Yeah, no, I actually like him." (Richard Pitino, 03:44)

Decision Process: Leaving New Mexico for Xavier

[04:37–05:26]

• Pitino discusses the appeal of Xavier’s basketball-centric environment, drawing parallels to New Mexico’s “The Pit.”
• The Big East’s intensity and the opportunity to coach in front of engaged crowds were major factors.
• On the importance of community investment:

  “If it could be at a place where, you know, you don't have to pass out pizzas to get people to go to the games, that was also an added benefit.” (Richard Pitino, 05:18)

Xavier Roster and Key Players to Watch

[05:53–06:34]

• Upon arrival, Pitino jokes he was left with only one player, Roddy Anderson, and had to rebuild the roster from the ground up.
• Highlights promising players:
  • Trey Carroll: Versatile scorer
  • Malik Messina Moore: Skilled shooter
  • Emphasizes the team’s need for shooting to compete effectively

Year One Mindset: Process Over Pressure

[07:03–08:20]

• Pitino stresses the importance of not fixating on wins in year one, focusing instead on culture and foundation-building.
• He recounts earlier career lessons in delegation, role clarity, and long-term team development:

  “The best thing that I did at New Mexico was not care about wins and losses in year one... For me it’s building the foundation.” (Richard Pitino, 07:03)
  “Fans want you to win now right away... but for me it’s building the foundation... with the mindset that the wins are going to come later." (Richard Pitino, 07:35)

Coaching Against Elite Big East Coaches

[08:20–09:30]

• Pitino acknowledges the challenge of facing top coaches in the Big East but remains confident due to his experience in the Big Ten and Mountain West.
• On what coaching in this environment means:

  “You have guys who've won national championships... you gotta be incredibly prepared because it's very competitive.” (Richard Pitino, 09:30)

Coaching Influences: Billy Donovan and Rick Pitino

[09:56–10:55]

• Pitino credits Billy Donovan for his offensive philosophy and his father Rick Pitino for defensive intensity and competitive drive.

  “Offensively, it was a lot of Billy Donovan. And then defensively, my dad.” (Richard Pitino, 09:58)
  “My dad's kind of competitive drive on a daily basis to get his guys to play hard, that’s an elite skill that I try... Billy Donovan... taught me that you can do it a different way.” (Richard Pitino, 10:00–10:41)

Navigating the “Pitino” Name in the Big East

[10:55–11:19]

• With humor and self-awareness, Pitino addresses the constant comparisons to his father and repeated questions from the media.

  “When you ask me what's it going to be like to play your father, when I've played him four times, you clearly don't do your homework. That's where I get annoyed.” (Richard Pitino, 11:05)

Big East Coaches’ Group Chat: The Pitino Family Dynamic

[11:53–12:22]

• Pitino recounts the surreal moment he saw his father’s name pop up in the Big East coaches’ group chat:

  “It got real when I got a group chat text... and then I see dad and I'm like, oh my God... It felt like he was coming down to the basement, ruining my party in high school.” (Richard Pitino, 11:53–12:22)

---

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On leaving New Mexico and joining Xavier:
  “I wasn’t sure I wanted to leave... but I felt like a Big East job with the new landscape had a lot of positives.” (Richard Pitino, 04:37)

• On building a program:
  “For me, it’s building the foundation. Kind of like you said, how you delegate with your staff... roles and then providing clarity to the players." (Richard Pitino, 07:32)

• On coaching influences:
  “Offensively, it was a lot of Billy Donovan. And then defensively, my dad.” (Richard Pitino, 09:58)

• On mixing family and business in the Big East:
  “It felt like he was coming down, like, to the basement, ruining my party in high school.” (Richard Pitino, 12:22)

---

Important Timestamps

• 01:12 — Pitino describes his early morning routine.
• 02:03 — Adjusting to a school without football; Xavier’s unique environment.
• 03:44 — Joking about rivalry and relationship with Cincinnati’s Wes Miller.
• 05:53 — Roster rebuilding and key players to watch.
• 07:03 — Pitino’s philosophy for first-year head coaches.
• 09:58 — Discussing his coaching influences and style.
• 11:53 — Pitino’s story about his father in the Big East coaches’ group chat.

---

Overall Tone & Takeaways

The conversation is candid, easygoing, and often funny, with Pitino displaying both humility about his journey and excitement for his new chapter at Xavier. He emphasizes the importance of culture-building, learning from past experiences, and remaining focused on controllable factors. The playful banter around the family dynamic in the Big East and the surreal group chat moment offers a unique look into the world of high-level college basketball coaching. This episode is a must-listen for fans interested in behind-the-scenes transitions, coaching philosophies, and the interplay of legacy and personal growth.

Transcript

[A]

When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans. Send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom 60th and never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end to end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp message privately with everyone. Learn [e-mail].

[B]

Xavier coach Richard Pitino joins us on the ION college basketball podcast and you are the first interview of Big east media day for me. I told you I was bringing you a bagel. You didn't believe me. This is yours. You don't want it? I'm going to have to give this to Fanta.

[C]

No, no, no, I'll take. We can't give it Fanta any more food. I'll take that.

[B]

Okay. Sesame light spread with the, with the cream cheese.

[C]

I think I didn't overdo it, so that's great. I appreciate it very much. I had eaten a little Starbucks perfect bar at 6am But I'll be hungry here soon, so I'll just carry it around.

[B]

Yeah, we're getting going by the way, for everyone listening and if you're watching on YouTube, we appreciate you. The media day proper hasn't even started. Are you a super or like if I find you middle of season, like, are you a super early morning person?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Night out, how you are?

[C]

Yeah, I, I'm like a 5am get up now. Part of that is I need to ease into my day. I try to wake up before my kids because once they wake up then it's like game on. So I try to get like an hour to myself, but I do get up early. But I'll, I can fall asleep quickly, go to bed around 10, 10:30. But then in the middle of the season, there's a lot of like walking around the house in the middle of the night. Yeah, it's a great profession.

[B]

Incredible. It's incredible visual there. Aside from you living in literally a different place in the country day to day, week to week, what's the biggest difference for you over the past three or four months versus if I found you a year ago, two years ago.

[C]

With the new kick, I think working at a school with no football is the biggest dramatic change. Although I went to Providence College, I've never worked at a school, I guess Northeastern I did, and Duquesne, but they're so early. Yeah. But as a head coach, I've never been at one like that, so that's unique. Xavier certainly feels like Providence College, smaller campus, but just the whole dynamics of, you know, you have this smaller athletic department where when you have football you have bigger athletic departments and you know, everybody's all in on basketball like they're normally all in on football.

[B]

Yeah, that's true. Obviously an intense, amazing fan base. You haven't yet, you know, played a real deal game, but have you been able to at least absorb some of what it's like to be the head coach in a really, you know, basketball crazed city with.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

With that amazing environment that you know is going to be there immediately from day one.

[C]

Yeah, it. You definitely feel it. There's a lot of Xavier alum that kind of live near where I live. So you meet him at the kids school and. But they're very, very passionate and they've had so much success, I mean, for the last 25 years. So, you know, they've always been a consistent player. They want that. They bring up Cincinnati a lot. You see, that's a big rivalry. Feels a lot like Kentucky, Louisville to me and what I experienced there. But yeah, I mean, it's cool because a lot of the Xavier alum obviously went there, but then they live there, they're from there and they're very proud of it.

[B]

How deep is the hatred between you and Wes Miller?

[C]

I really don't like him a lot. I hate him, actually. Yeah, no, I actually like him. John Cunningham, the ad, was my sport administrator at Minnesota. So we want to beat him, but. But they're really good guys.

[B]

He's. I'll be at Big 12 media day tomorrow. He is also my first interview of the day. So I'll be judging both of you on how well this interview goes first, bright and early. I could make the argument that your previous job and your current job actually do have a lot of parallels. I am wondering if in the process, if you, you know, being courted for the Xavier job, as you were mulling over, okay, am I going to leave New Mexico? If I am, here are the pros of everything. If a lot of the similarities between the two was actually one of the selling points, maybe not even an initial selling point for you, but as you got closer to the finish line there, you saw, you know, how intense and how much basketball means to that university. Granted, it does have football, but I'm just wondering if some of the, the closeness between the two was actually a big selling point.

[C]

Yeah, I was not going to leave unless I could have something that felt like the pit. You know, that is just a. It's a life changing experience coaching in front of 15,000 people. And it just, it just drives your program. So you can't have apathy, you know, now at a place that cares like New Mexico or cares like Xavier, you better win too. But that was kind of a decision for me if I did decide to leave. And I wasn't sure I wanted to leave, you know, I mean, I really enjoyed my time in New Mexico, but I felt like a biggie's job with the new landscape had a lot of positives. And if it could be at a place where, you know, you don't have to pass out pizzas to get people to go to the games, that was also an added benefit.

[B]

We don't need to do a super duper deep dive on your roster. We'll wait for that when I call you in the middle of the night in the middle of January, around the house, obviously. But I do wonder if you could just for our podcast audience that is getting to know, okay, who's on Xavier's roster this year? Who are some of the guys to you that you prioritize in the portal you wound up getting and kind of shown some real promise, guys you expect, you know, even if it's going to be a little bit bumpy early, you know, first four, four to six weeks of the season. Richard, who do you think is going to be some guys that really step up and shine?

[C]

Yeah, when I took the job, this was my team meeting. It was me and Roddy Anderson had no other players left.

[B]

You had one more than Caliperi, who famously said, I met with the team. You had one.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, he was so. I had known Roddy from Boise because he was in the Mountain west, so I was comfortable with that one. You know, we, we obviously played one exhibition game. Trey Carroll really stood out, puts the ball in the basket a variety of ways. Shoot the three can get to the rim, you can score in the post. You know, Malik Messina Moore is really, really skilled player. Like, I really like our skill. I think that's we're going to need to shoot the basketball to have a chance. And I think we have guys that can certainly shoot it.

[B]

You've taken on a number of jobs. Big picture for head coach in year one. What are some of the most important things for you personally? How you're wired, how you run your staff, run your team to prevent it from getting to be just too much or. I understand it's a high stress job. You can avoid some of that, but I'm sure there are things that you know, that you've learned from over the years that can just make that year one process particularly, I don't know, smoother than maybe it otherwise would be if you're not experienced in that area.

[C]

Yeah, I mean, I would say, and fans don't want to hear this, but I think the best thing that I did at New Mexico was not care about wins and losses in year one, because I remember telling myself when I was at Minnesota, I just wanted to prove myself that I belong at a Big Ten job at 30 years old, which looks, looking back, I didn't. You know what I mean? So I was never going to prove anything, but I wanted to win to justify my resume. Humbly speaking, I don't really think that way anymore. I mean, I went to back to back against, you know, my tournaments. We won some championships. I'm. I'm comfortable and secure enough that I earned this job where I kind of felt a little insecure early in my career. So fans want you to win now right away. They don't care about you. Inherited one player, didn't play last year. But for me it's building the foundation. Kind of like you said, how you delegate with your staff. I didn't do that well enough early. Really, really establishing roles and then providing clarity to the players of. This is how we speak on the basketball court. This is terminology, this is how we act in the classroom, in practice, all those things kind of with the mindset that the winds are going to come later, although we certainly want them to come now.

[B]

Bit of a psychological question here. You've coached in some really good leagues, obviously, but when you enter in a league like this with some really, really good coaches, what do you do to, if anything at all, Richard, to. I guess, I don't know, kind of prep up your game, you know, entering into the Big east. It's a big time league and you know that it's going to be arguably. I mean, when you were, obviously when you were in the Big Ten, it was a very, very good league. But this will be as challenging, I think strategically X and O wise for you as anything you've ever done. Right.

[C]

I mean the Big Ten was certainly no slouch. I mean we're going against the Izzos and Bo Ryan's and Matt Painters of the world and there's obviously, maybe they don't have the resumes, but the Mountain west great coaches as well. So I mean, you know, you have some, you know, you have guys who've won national championships.

[B]

My dad, Dan Hurley, your dad's in the league.

[C]

He's coaches St. John's right here. Yeah.

[B]

I'm not going to ask you a question about your father in this.

[C]

I had a preemptive tweet to try to just scare everybody off, but somebody will not see it and ask me. But, I mean, honestly, it brings out the best in you. But I also, like, don't really consume myself with the other coach. I just kind of focus on my thing. So, yeah, I mean, you got to be incredibly, you know, prepared because it's very competitive.

[B]

Since so many people obviously compare you to your father. Again, we're not doing that on this podcast, but maybe you've gotten this question recently, maybe you haven't, but since you're in the league, I just wonder, aside from your father, who are some of the coaches that style wise? Just if. If someone who, like, you know, is as smart as anyone in the game and took a look at, you know, 20 of your game tapes from the past three years, what DNA would they be clear? Like, up. That's from that coach. That's from that coach. That's from that coach. Just who do you kind of.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Who have you learned the most from that into your style?

[C]

I would say offensively, it was a lot of Billy Donovan. And then defensively, my dad. You know, when you work for two hall of Fame coaches like that, I mean, my dad's kind of competitive drive on a daily basis to get his guys to play hard. That's an elite skill that I try. But that's by far his greatest strength. I mean, he just pushes you and pushes you and does not stop. Billy Donovan, kind of. Not to say my dad's not cerebral, but Billy was way different in his approach, and we all want the same thing, but I think working for Coach Donovan kind of taught me that, like, you can do it a different way, you know, not that my. My dad doesn't yell and scream as much as he used to. Like, he used to scream a lot. But, you know, there. There are ways to do it, and I think you would see a lot of influence of both of them in my program.

[B]

I was going to intentionally not try and bring up your father. You've now brought him up, I think, for two and a half consecutive minutes. So this is all on you, but. Sure, this is completely on you.

[C]

My thing about the. The dad, when I will answer any dad question, but when you ask me what's it going to be like to play your father, when I've played him four times, you clearly don't do your homework. That's where I get annoyed. So please fire away.

[B]

Valid and fair enough. Now we can. This. Listen, it's a. It's a short. It's a short podcasting this. These are like 10 minute episodes going on YouTube in the field. Last one. You know, in about, I don't know, an hour from now, maybe we're going to. You're going to take a picture in front of the big board here at msg. Have you thought about who you're going to stand next to? You got to be strategic about this, by the way.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

When you do the lead coaches picture. Yeah. I mean, you cannot find yourself, sidle up next to McDermott. It's not gonna. It's not gonna go well for you. So what are we thinking here? Maybe. Maybe Hurley.

[C]

Yeah. Maybe Shaw. I think I might be a little taller than shot.

[B]

Oh, okay.

[C]

You know, it's funny. It got real when I got a group chat text from Dam Lee Woods.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And I got responses. Shaka. Smart Dan Hurley. Okay, mcdermott. Yeah. Thumbs up. And then I see dad and I'm like, oh, my God. This guy's like. That was really where it was like. I don't know if I like this right now.

[B]

Good point though. Like there are. Yeah. I could just imagine if like my father, particularly my mother just suddenly was in like a group chat with like nine of my.

[C]

Yeah. With all your friends. Like, it felt like he was like coming down, like to the basement, ruining my party in high school. I was like, oh, why is he here? But yeah, I don't know. Maybe I'll stand next to him. I'm not sure. I haven't thought about it yet.

[B]

All right, well, good luck in year one. Appreciate you. And we'll catch up as the year goes on.

[C]

Thank you. Thanks for the bagel.

[B]

Absolutely. Rich Patino Episode 1 here from Biggie's Me Today on the Ion college basketball podcast.

[C]

You can be.

[A]

Paramount podcasts.

[D]

This October. Fear is free on Pluto tv. With horror movie collections from Paranormal Activity, the Ring.

[B]

You will die in seven days.

[D]

Scream. And from dusk till dawn.

[C]

This is my kind of place.

[D]

And don't miss the man made nightmares in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or the world ending chaos in 28 days later.

[C]

There's something in the blood.

[D]

All the scares all for free. Pluto TV stream now pay never.