Richard Pitino introduced as basketball coach

By Igor Mello and Malcolm Shields/ FIUSM staff

sports@fiusm.com

After an up and down week within the men’s basketball program with the firing of Isiah Thomas, the Executive Director of Sports and Entertainment Pete Garcia has found his new coach. Richard Pitino has agreed to a five-year deal worth $1.25 million to become the head coach of the FIU men’s basketball team.

Pitino, 29, will be taking a slight pay cut from his $275,00o base salary as an assistant to takes his first head coaching job in Division-I basketball. The hire makes him the third youngest head coach in the NCAA Division-I basketball and the seventh head coach in FIU men’s basketball history.

The school introduced Pitino on April 16 during a press conference at U.S. Century Bank Arena.

“It’s been a dream of mine,” said Pitino. “I’m prepared to do this job. People always say I’m young and I tell them I may be young but I am experienced.”

Pitino was an associate coach with the University of Louisville last season under his father, Rick Pitino. Under his father’s wing, the Cardinals reached the Final Four  where they were eliminated by, eventual champions, Kentucky on March 31. Garcia, who attended the Final Four in New Orleans, denies that he made contact with Pitino before the firing of Isiah Thomas.

“I was at the Final Four and I didn’t hold the Final Four results against coach Pitino. But I did make contact with him about Tuesday (April 10) of last week,” Garcia said.

Pitino’s coaching career began in 2005 after graduating from Providence College. Pitino has had coaching stops at Duquesne University, the University of Florida and Northeastern University. While at the University of Florida, Pitino played a role in assisting the Gators from 2009-2011 to two NCAA tournament appearance and an Elite-Eight finish in 2011.

“I won’t hold that against him,” Garcia joked about Pitino’s stint with the Gators.

While at Louisville, Pitino played a role in recruiting and creating scouting reports for his father. Pitino was credited with assisting the Cardinals in obtaining some of the top recruiting classes in the nation to play in Louisville.

His ability to connect with players and recruits will be tested as more than half of the current players on the roster have requested to be released from their scholarship after the firing of Thomas on April 6. The status of the 2012 recruiting class is uncertain as many of the recruits were tied to the program with the intentions of playing for Thomas.

“They have to get to know me. They’re not going to going to just want to play for me without even knowing me. So the most important thing for me these couple of days is to be around these guys as much as possible. They’re going to have to be recruited a little bit, and I certainly understand that. I’m confident that I can do that,” Pitino said. “It’s hard for me to tell you how I can get them to stay. For some guys it will be a good fit, for some others it may not be a good fit. At the end of the day that is my job to figure out what they want.”

Pitino will have to repair the relationships of disgruntled players like Dominique Ferguson, who has had the appeal for the release of his scholarship denied by the university on April 13. Ferguson has vowed to never play for FIU again.

“Our interest is for the players to stay here and get their degrees, there is an appeal process and everything that goes on,” Garcia said.

Pitino will inherit a program that has gone through 12 consecutive losing seasons. Pitino though, has had some experience in being a part of a rebuilding process of a basketball program. While at Duquesne, he was on the staff that saw the Dukes improve their number of wins to double digits in 2006 and help lead Northeastern to a 19 win season in 2005.

The hire goes along the lines of other hires that Garcia has made to other sports programs at FIU since he was named athletic director in 2006. Beginning with Mario Cristobal and Turtle Thomas, both were known for their ability to recruit talent. Pitino will be tasked to build a basketball program that has not had a winning season since the 1999-2000 season.

When asked about his father, Pitino joked about the possibility of playing him in the future.

“It’s probably not going to be a daydream. It will be a nightmare. He texted me and said ‘I never got to spank you as a child, would you like to get a spanking this year’,” Pitino said. “I told him, bring it on.”