NCAA Basketball rewind: Most impactful coaching hires after 2012 season

By Joey Loose | Jun 22, 2021

PHILADELPHIA, PA - FEBRUARY 19: Head coach Kevin Ollie of the Connecticut Huskies yells to his team against the Temple Owls during the second half at the Liacouras Center on February 19, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Connecticut won 64-63. (Photo by Corey Perrine/Getty Images) /

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NCAA Basketball Richard Pitino Minnesota Golden Gophers (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /

10. Richard Pitino (Florida International)

Florida International was still relatively new to D1 athletics, and it had been nearly two decades since their first and only appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Just three years earlier, the Panthers brought former NBA All-Star Isiah Thomas in to jumpstart the program, but the opposite had occurred. Still mulled in a long stretch of losing, the Panthers were forced to turn in a different direction.

That direction wound up being Richard Pitino, whose father had won the NCAA Tournament as Kentucky’s coach several years earlier. The young Pitino hadn’t yet been a head coach, having spent time on a number of coaching staffs, under his father, Ron Everhart and Billy Donovan at Florida.

Pitino would spend just a single season at Florida International, but he made quite the impact in that one year. Inheriting a team in disarray, he pieced together a winning roster; the Panthers finished that season with 18 wins, more than double last season’s total. Pitino parlayed that success into the Minnesota job, though that instant success (where Isiah Thomas failed) clearly made him deserving of a spot on this list.

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