GOODBYE MN, HELLO NM Richard Pitino Is Loving Loboland
Photo: Joe Thuente
By Glen Rosales
N
ew Mexico’s new men’s head basketball coach is just about everything that recent coaches were not. Richard Pitino is stylish and snazzy, with a certain hip confidence. He rubs shoulders with national champs, like his dad, Rick Pitino, or mentor Billy Donovan.
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MIRAGE MAGAZINE
He would never ride a Harley-Davidson down the Pit ramp. Pitino, 40, was out of a job at Minnesota for less than 24 hours before being offered and accepting the New Mexico job in March. And now he’s setting out to right the Lobo program, put the fannies back into the
Pit seats and figure out a way to win a few NCAA Tournament games along the way. When he was let go by Minnesota, Pitino had one goal for his next chapter: “I wanted to be at a place that I felt like their stature in the conference was one of the best basketball jobs in the conference,” he said. “And I don’t
