Richard Pitino was introduced as the Sedler Family Men's Basketball Head Coach at Xavier University on April 1, 2025. Pitino, who has been the head coach at the University of New Mexico for the past four seasons, is the 21st head coach in Xavier basketball history.

Pitino has 13 seasons of experience as a head coach, having won an NIT Championship and made four NCAA Tournament appearances. The 2024-25 Mountain West Coach of the Year and 2016-17 Big Ten Coach of the Year has compiled a 247-186 record in 13 years as a head coach. Pitino, 42, is among the top 25 winningest active head coaches under the age of 50 and is sixth among active head coaches under the age of 45. All of this success came after seven years as an assistant coach or associate head coach that included five NCAA appearances, including one Final Four appearance and four trips to the Elite Eight and two 30-win seasons.

Pitino led the Lobos to a 27-8 overall record and the second round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament with a first-round win over Marquette. He led New Mexico to a 17-3 league record and the 2024-25 Mountain West Conference Regular Season Championship.

In the 2023-24 season, Pitino led New Mexico to a 26-10 record, winning the Mountain West Championship and returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014. The Lobos downed Air Force, and three NCAA Tournament teams, Boise State, Colorado State and San Diego State, on consecutive days in Las Vegas to become the first team in Mountain West history to win the conference tournament by winning four games.

Pitino came to UNM after an eight-year stint at Minnesota, where he led the Gophers to two NCAA Tournament berths and an NIT Championship. Pitino was named 2017 Big Ten Coach of the Year by both the coaches and Associated Press, while also being also being named the 2017 NABC District 7 Coach of the Year. He began his head coaching career at Florida International in the 2012-13 season, leading FIU to an 18-14 record.

Pitino's success hasn't just been as a head coach, as he has been a part of several deep NCAA Tournament runs as an assistant and as an associate head coach. He spent two separate stints at Louisville coaching alongside his father Rick Pitino, who is now the head coach at BIG EAST rival St. John's, while the Cardinals were competing in the BIG EAST Conference. In 2011-12 as associate head coach, the Cardinals went 30-10, advancing all the way to the Final Four.  His first stint at Louisville was from 2007-09, and both seasons ended in Elite Eight runs.

Between Louisville stops, Pitino spent two seasons at Florida coaching under Billy Donovan. In his first season with Florida, the Gators went 21-13 overall, making it to the NCAA Tournament. The following season in 2009-10, Florida won the SEC Regular Season Championship and went 29-8 overall, advancing to the Elite Eight.

Pitino has also had assistant coaching stops at Duquesne and Northeastern and was an administrative assistant on the basketball staff at the College of Charleston. Another BIG EAST Conference connection for the native of Boston, Mass., is that he went to Providence College, where he earned a B.A. in history in 2005. While at Providence he served as a student manager under Tim Welsh before beginning his coaching career the following year.

Richard and his wife Jill are the parents of two daughters, Ava and Zoe, and a son, Jack.