Rarely do assistant coaching hires make the news, but this one is just too interesting to pass up. Billy Donovan, former assistant to Rick Pitino, has hired Richard Pitino, the 26-year-old son of Louisville's head basketball coach. The younger Pitino has been an assistant at Louisville for the past two seasons. The intertwined relationships here are quite unique. In the past, there has been speculation that one of the reasons Donovan didn't take the head job at Kentucky was due to his close relationship with Pitino. The two often talk about how they consider each other family.
This seems like a case where the younger Pitino needed to be out of his father's shadow in order to grow and develop into a head coaching candidate down the line. It's very doubtful that this was done without Rick Pitino's full blessing, as evident by his public stance.
"Richard and I have been talking this possibility over for the last two weeks," Rick Pitino said. "Billy is like a son to me and there's no other person in the country that I would rather have Richard work with than him. We both agree that this a unique opportunity for Richard to develop his own identity while helping Billy build his program back to national prominence."After two consecutive national championships, Florida has spent the past two postseasons in the NIT. Both the playing roster and coaching staff have been decimated in the wake of those championship teams, so, with Pitino in house, Donovan will look to get some sort of continuity back in Gainesville.
