After eight seasons as head coach, Richard Pitino has been relieved of his coaching duties by Minnesota Basketball. Pitino played his college ball at Providence before embarking on his coaching career. He spent nearly a decade as a Division 1 assistant, most notably under his father at Louisville and under Billy Donovan at Florida. He spent a single season as the head coach at Florida International, accumulating 18 wins in an impressive first season with the Panthers.
Pitino was hired by Minnesota back in 2013, replacing Tubby Smith. Expectations were high for Pitino, especially in a tough conference like the Big Ten. He led the Golden Gophers to the NIT championship in his first season, but success was sometimes fleeting. Over the course of his tenure, Pitino led the Golden Gophers to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances, including a first-round upset of Louisville back in 2019. Unfortunately, there were also some pretty rough seasons, as the Golden Gophers finished 10th or lower in the Big Ten in five of these eight campaigns.
Minnesota sits in the Big Ten, which has certainly made its case for the best conference in college basketball. These Golden Gophers looked like an NCAA Tournament less than a month ago, but the team’s collapse is a big reason for Pitino’s dismissal. Still, this program has the ability to compete in this top-tier league, as they showed for some of this past season.
The focus turns towards the future and the Golden Gophers can certainly still have a bright future if they tab the right head coach. While they may seem a little out there in Minnesota, there is basketball talent in Minneapolis and the next head coach will have to have the ability to bring in talent from across the country. While the Golden Gophers post alone might not be the most attractive, it’s still a Big Ten coaching job.
We’ll be running through some of the prime candidates for the head coaching position, though of course, this is not an all-inclusive list. Any one of these five names would be great hires for Minnesota; let’s get into the names.