BleedGopher
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per a lengthy profile in The Athletic:
So what was it like being fired?
Richard Pitino fields the question with his customary ease. He’s sitting in his office as the newly installed coach at New Mexico, where he has been trying to make his dismissal from Minnesota five months ago a distant memory. Pitino doesn’t wince at the question, doesn’t sigh deeply or indulge in gallows humor. He simply shrugs and serves up a platter of perspective, seasoned with a surprising dash of good cheer. “Not as bad as I thought,” he says. “I’ve always said, if you play the games, they’re going to want you to win. And if you don’t win enough, you’re going to get fired. As much as it sucks, I can sit here after eight years in the Big Ten, hold my head high and say, I represented myself well, I didn’t embarrass myself, I didn’t embarrass my family. Plus, I got this job less than 24 hours later, so I didn’t have to sit around and wallow in it.”
When Pitino says “less than 24 hours later,” he really means “about 15 minutes later.” That’s how much time passed from the moment Minnesota athletic director Mark Coyle informed Pitino the school was going to announce his firing the next day, and when New Mexico AD Eddie Nuñez texted Pitino to let him know he’d be calling in the morning to offer him a new job. If it seems like those two messages must have been coordinated, that’s because to a large degree they were. The timing was the result of unusually open communication between all the principals, lubricated by a maturity shown by Pitino that belied his age. Not for nothing does Coyle call this 38-year-old veteran head coach “a wise, old soul.”
Pitino may be a millennial, but he has the wizened outlook of someone who was basically born into the profession. He has watched his father, Rick, a two-time national championship coach enshrined in the Hall of Fame, experience every high and low imaginable. When Richard was a student at Providence, he was a manager for the basketball team and an assistant coach at a local high school. After graduating in 2005, Richard worked as an assistant for nine years at five different colleges, became a Division I head coach at Florida International at age 29, and a Big Ten head coach at 30. Pitino had a few highs of his own at Minnesota — he won the NIT championship his first season and was named Big Ten Coach of the Year in his third — but in the end there were too many lows. That led Coyle to cut Pitino loose, which was difficult because the two had become so close. They still talk weekly.
When Nuñez called Coyle to ask his opinion on the coach he was in the process of firing, Coyle gave an unabashed endorsement. Before taking over at Minnesota, Coyle had been the AD at Boise State for four years, so he understands what it takes to win in the Mountain West Conference. “I had zero hesitation about recommending him,” Coyle says. “Richard is the definition of low ego, high output. I told Eddie what a great person he is, that he does things the right way and has great humility, and he would be a great ambassador for New Mexico basketball. I just thought he would be a terrific fit.”
theathletic.com
Go Gophers!!
So what was it like being fired?
Richard Pitino fields the question with his customary ease. He’s sitting in his office as the newly installed coach at New Mexico, where he has been trying to make his dismissal from Minnesota five months ago a distant memory. Pitino doesn’t wince at the question, doesn’t sigh deeply or indulge in gallows humor. He simply shrugs and serves up a platter of perspective, seasoned with a surprising dash of good cheer. “Not as bad as I thought,” he says. “I’ve always said, if you play the games, they’re going to want you to win. And if you don’t win enough, you’re going to get fired. As much as it sucks, I can sit here after eight years in the Big Ten, hold my head high and say, I represented myself well, I didn’t embarrass myself, I didn’t embarrass my family. Plus, I got this job less than 24 hours later, so I didn’t have to sit around and wallow in it.”
When Pitino says “less than 24 hours later,” he really means “about 15 minutes later.” That’s how much time passed from the moment Minnesota athletic director Mark Coyle informed Pitino the school was going to announce his firing the next day, and when New Mexico AD Eddie Nuñez texted Pitino to let him know he’d be calling in the morning to offer him a new job. If it seems like those two messages must have been coordinated, that’s because to a large degree they were. The timing was the result of unusually open communication between all the principals, lubricated by a maturity shown by Pitino that belied his age. Not for nothing does Coyle call this 38-year-old veteran head coach “a wise, old soul.”
Pitino may be a millennial, but he has the wizened outlook of someone who was basically born into the profession. He has watched his father, Rick, a two-time national championship coach enshrined in the Hall of Fame, experience every high and low imaginable. When Richard was a student at Providence, he was a manager for the basketball team and an assistant coach at a local high school. After graduating in 2005, Richard worked as an assistant for nine years at five different colleges, became a Division I head coach at Florida International at age 29, and a Big Ten head coach at 30. Pitino had a few highs of his own at Minnesota — he won the NIT championship his first season and was named Big Ten Coach of the Year in his third — but in the end there were too many lows. That led Coyle to cut Pitino loose, which was difficult because the two had become so close. They still talk weekly.
When Nuñez called Coyle to ask his opinion on the coach he was in the process of firing, Coyle gave an unabashed endorsement. Before taking over at Minnesota, Coyle had been the AD at Boise State for four years, so he understands what it takes to win in the Mountain West Conference. “I had zero hesitation about recommending him,” Coyle says. “Richard is the definition of low ego, high output. I told Eddie what a great person he is, that he does things the right way and has great humility, and he would be a great ambassador for New Mexico basketball. I just thought he would be a terrific fit.”
Richard Pitino and New Mexico needed a fresh start — and each other
An unusually open and candid coaching carousel left the former Minnesota coach at New Mexico, trying to revive the Lobos.
theathletic.com
Go Gophers!!
