BleedGopher
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Marcus wrote this article over the weekend, an interesting read:
When the Gophers play Michigan State in their biggest home game yet this season Sunday, it won’t be a coaching matchup between Tom Izzo and Rick Pitino’s son.
Maybe that was the story line when Richard Pitino first took on the Spartans and the iconic Izzo six years ago, as a newly hired 30-year-old college basketball coach. No longer.
How often anymore do you hear his Hall of Fame father’s name linked to him and the Gophers?
Richard Pitino doesn’t. And he prefers it that way.
“I’ve obviously had some success,” Pitino said. “For me, I don’t look at being in his shadow, because I’m not coaching at Louisville or Kentucky. I’ve never really felt like I’ve ever been under his shadow as the head coach at Minnesota.”
Pitino wanted to forge his own path, and he’s done so in his seven seasons in Minnesota. He’s also learned how career-defining it is to go your own way. Other second-generation college basketball coaches have discovered that as well, some sooner than others.
Doors open quickly for sons of coaches, but for every Tony Bennett, Eric Musselman or Scott Drew, there’s a Pat Knight or Sean Sutton. Pitino is somewhere in the middle. Outcomes of games such as Sunday’s will weigh heavily on where Pitino ultimately falls on that scale.
Being a Big Ten coach comes with its own pressure — but not like running the same program or coaching in the same leagues where your father won NCAA titles or went to Final Fours.
Pitino didn’t want that.
“It would’ve been a totally different element — where you’re going to be constantly compared to your dad,” he said. “I’m in the Big Ten. I think after [seven] years being in it, being to the NCAA tournament two of the last three years and winning an NIT title, I think now my body of work kind of speaks for itself a little bit.”
www.startribune.com
Go Gophers!!
When the Gophers play Michigan State in their biggest home game yet this season Sunday, it won’t be a coaching matchup between Tom Izzo and Rick Pitino’s son.
Maybe that was the story line when Richard Pitino first took on the Spartans and the iconic Izzo six years ago, as a newly hired 30-year-old college basketball coach. No longer.
How often anymore do you hear his Hall of Fame father’s name linked to him and the Gophers?
Richard Pitino doesn’t. And he prefers it that way.
“I’ve obviously had some success,” Pitino said. “For me, I don’t look at being in his shadow, because I’m not coaching at Louisville or Kentucky. I’ve never really felt like I’ve ever been under his shadow as the head coach at Minnesota.”
Pitino wanted to forge his own path, and he’s done so in his seven seasons in Minnesota. He’s also learned how career-defining it is to go your own way. Other second-generation college basketball coaches have discovered that as well, some sooner than others.
Doors open quickly for sons of coaches, but for every Tony Bennett, Eric Musselman or Scott Drew, there’s a Pat Knight or Sean Sutton. Pitino is somewhere in the middle. Outcomes of games such as Sunday’s will weigh heavily on where Pitino ultimately falls on that scale.
Being a Big Ten coach comes with its own pressure — but not like running the same program or coaching in the same leagues where your father won NCAA titles or went to Final Fours.
Pitino didn’t want that.
“It would’ve been a totally different element — where you’re going to be constantly compared to your dad,” he said. “I’m in the Big Ten. I think after [seven] years being in it, being to the NCAA tournament two of the last three years and winning an NIT title, I think now my body of work kind of speaks for itself a little bit.”
Like other sons from college basketball coaching families, Gophers' Richard Pitino tries to carve own path
For the fortunate ones, coaching lineage turns into just a footnote as their careers progress.
www.startribune.com
Go Gophers!!