I’ve read a couple of articles linking New Mexico coach Richard Pitino to the UVA Basketball coaching job, which I find odd, because the people that I’ve been in contact with involved in the search have never mentioned Pitino’s name.
So, I had to ask the question: am I missing something? Being played to keep me away from what’s really going on behind the scenes?
I ran the question up the flagpole.
The answer I got back: he just has a good agent.
ICYMI
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Pitino, 42, the son of the legendary (and notoriously sleazy) Rick Pitino, is in his fourth year at New Mexico, which he has led on a nice turnaround – the Lobos were 13-19 in his Year 1, in 2021-2022; they were 22-12 and in the NIT the next season, 26-10 and in the NCAA Tournament last year, and he has them at 24-6 this season, and in as a projected #9 seed in Joe Lunardi’s latest bracketology.
So, good work there for the younger Pitino, after a largely disastrous run at Minnesota, where he was 141-123 in eight seasons, with more sub-.500 seasons (four) than NCAA Tournament appearances (two).
Pitino took the job at New Mexico, in the Mountain West, the sixth-rated conference in KenPom, for the same reason that Shaka Smart, 47, who I have been told is UVA’s top target, took over at Marquette, in the Big East, KenPom’s third-rated conference – to rehab his reputation.
Pitino is 85-47 at this writing at New Mexico; Smart is 97-37 at Marquette, after a middling 109-86 tenure at Texas that included three NCAA Tournament appearances and NIT championship in six seasons (his 2019-2020 team would have received an NCAA at-large bid).
So, to that end, mission accomplished for both, who are more than ready to take a step back up the ladder.
As far as I can tell, I’m the only person connecting Smart to the Virginia job in print through actual reporting – not counting the other journos who are cribbing on my reporting, or those who aren’t doing anything remotely resembling reporting, but just speculating or putting out their own wish lists.
Meanwhile, I’ve seen David Teel, and most recently Jeff Borzello, at ESPN.com, linking Pitino to UVA.
Teel’s mention felt like speculation, the way he wrote it, but Borzello used the phrasing “involved in the Virginia vacancy.”
Which I’m being told is, not true.
“Never,” was the response to the query about Pitino being involved in the search.
The sentiment relayed to me: Pitino apparently feels he has done his penance at New Mexico, it’s time for him to get his next power conference job, and so, the PR strategy is to sell him to the writers as a guy who is up for the best jobs on the market.
Virginia is one of those, ergo, we’re seeing Pitino linked to the job in print.
If this is what is going on, credit to his agent: the strategy to get your guy’s name out there is working.
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Chris Graham
