For the Pitinos, a household reunion is occurring a bit earlier than Thanksgiving.
Rick Pitino and St. John’s are set to face Richard Pitino and New Mexico at Madison Sq. Backyard on Sunday afternoon in a much-hyped teaching showdown between father and son.
Amongst these planning to attend are Rick’s daughter, Jacqueline, and one other son, Ryan, who will sit behind their father’s bench as impartial observers.
“My wife [Joanne] and her sister and her best friend will sit behind Richard’s bench and will not be neutral,” Rick, 72, deadpanned Friday.
“She told my son the other day, ‘Richard, there’s no doubt who I’m rooting for. It’s you. You’re my blood. He’s not.’ It shows you how much she loves me and how much she loves Richard.”
That revelation, whereas made in jest, served for instance of the distinctive nature of Sunday’s early-season matinee between 3-0 groups, at the same time as each Pitinos downplayed the oddity of going through one another.
It is going to be their fourth head-to-head assembly. Rick gained the primary two, along with his Louisville crew beating his son at FIU in 2012 and at Minnesota in 2014. Pitino and New Mexico then beat the elder Pitino’s Iona crew in 2022.
“It’s not as weird as people think,” Richard, 42, stated Friday.
Rick Pitino, then coach at Iona, and Richard Pitino of New Mexico, on this 2022 file picture, will face off towards one another for the fourth time on Sunday on the Backyard when St. John’s battles the Lobos.
“Grateful that my dad was willing to do this. As for playing my dad, it doesn’t even feel like a factor, honestly. This is the fourth time we’ve done it. There’s no extra motivation, extra anything. I mean, I’m excited to see him. I’m excited to see my mom.”
Nonetheless, returning to the Backyard serves as one thing of a full-circle second for Richard, who was a younger little one throughout his dad’s teaching stints with the Knicks within the Nineteen Eighties, and who coached there as an assistant on his father’s Louisville staffs from 2007-09 and 2011-12.
Richard has “zero memories” of going to the Backyard in the course of the Knicks years, he stated. His extra vivid childhood reminiscences revolve round his father’s time at Kentucky, the place Rick coached from 1989-97 and gained the primary of his two nationwide championships.
“It was a lot,” Richard recalled. “He [was] killing it. They’re successful massive. That’s fanfare to the very best, highest excessive, and I by no means actually appreciated it.
“I remember so often we would go out to eat … and there would be lines of Kentucky fans waiting for pictures, autographs, all those things,” he stated. “I appreciated it, but it was never really for me.”
Richard stated seeing his dad coach the Boston Celtics — whose winning-focused fan base was much less blindly fanatical — from 1997-2001 was extra formative in his personal teaching journey.
As a school pupil at Windfall, Richard doubled as an assistant coach for a highschool basketball crew in Rhode Island, and there was no turning again from there.
Richard is now in his thirteenth season as a school basketball coach and in his fourth at New Mexico. Final season, he led the Lobos to a Mountain West Convention championship and an NCAA Event berth for the primary time in his tenure.
Rick, in the meantime, is in his second season at St. John’s, making an attempt to show round a program with solely three NCAA Event appearances since 2002. St. John’s went 20-13, together with 11-9 towards the loaded Massive East, in 12 months 1 underneath the Corridor-of-Fame coach however was not invited to the Massive Dance.
This offseason, Rick overhauled a roster that misplaced its three main scorers by including prized transfers Kadary Richmond from Seton Corridor and Deivon Smith from Utah.
Sunday marks the primary true check of the season for St. John’s, which, at No. 22, is ranked for the primary time since January 2019. It’s the primary recreation on the Backyard this season for the Johnnies, who steamrolled Fordham, Quinnipiac and Wagner of their first three video games.
New Mexico, in the meantime, already boasts a ranked win over then-No. 22 UCLA.
The Lobos’ offense runs via junior level guard Donovan Dent, whose 19.0 factors and 9.7 assists per recreation lead the crew. Nelly Junior Joseph, a 6-10 senior averaging 18.0 factors and 12.3 rebounds, starred at Iona for 3 years underneath the elder Pitino earlier than transferring to New Mexico final yr.
Like his son, Rick stated he doesn’t count on the spectacle round Sunday’s familial face-off to be a distraction.
“During the game, you really don’t know each other is on the sidelines at that point,” Rick stated. “You’re so focused on stopping the opponent, stopping the players, that you don’t really pay attention to coaches. So, before the game, certainly, after the game, certainly, but during the game, there’s very little notice of the other coaches.”
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That stated, the assembly has introduced renewed consideration to one in all faculty basketball’s most well-known households — and a few of its current headlines.
Most notably, Rick stated in February that he needed Richard to finally exchange him as the top coach at St. John’s, the place he’s underneath contract for 4 years after this one.
“I thought, ‘Oh there’s my dad saying another insane thing, and hopefully nobody’s listening to him.’ I think he was probably messing around,” Richard stated Friday. “I don’t know where that came from. That’s never, ever been a conversation we have had.”
Final month, Richard flew to New York and joined his father for Recreation 4 of the World Collection, with the pair dressing in Yankees jerseys and sitting behind the house dugout within the Bronx.
Earlier than that 11-4 win by the Yankees, Richard visited his father at St. John’s.
“I stroll in there they usually’re training, and I may inform all of the gamers are taking a look at me like, ‘We don’t like this guy, because all he does is hype up your team like you’re the Boston Celtics,’” Richard stated.
“That’s what he does. He’s always done it. He always picks an early game that he feels will motivate the team.”
Sunday’s recreation advantages the Tunnel to Towers Basis, which helps veterans and households affected by the 9/11 terrorist assaults. The charity is private to the Pitino household, as Rick’s finest good friend and brother-in-law, Billy Minardi, was killed on the World Commerce Middle.
Though they’ll be foes on Sunday, Rick stated he and Richard deliberate to exit with their household on Saturday night time.
“If we lose, my team will be very disappointed, but I’ll be very happy for my son,” Rick stated. “I’ve flown out to New Mexico and brought red-eyes again simply to see him, so I root for him on a regular basis. I’m a huge fan of his. I hope St. John’s wins, but when they don’t, I’ll be a proud father.”
