“We are here to win championships,” said New Mexico head coach Richard Pitino at his introductory press conference in 2021.

It’s a sports cliche as old as time. What head coach is there not to win championships? Many say it, but few actually do it.

Pitino, in his four years with the Lobos, is already a Mountain West Tournament champion and has positioned his team for another this year. Finishing 25-6, 17-3 in conference, the Lobos earned the No. 1 seed as the Mountain West regular season champions and are the betting favorites to win their conference tournament again.

Pitino should be Director of Athletics Boo Corrigan’s first option as the next head coach of NC State men’s basketball. Here’s why.

Despite 13 years of head coaching experience at the Division I level — more than his predecessor Kevin Keatts — Pitino is only 42 years old. Stops at Florida International, Minnesota and now New Mexico make up those 13 years.

Before that, he spent time as an assistant at Charleston, Northeastern, Duquesne, at Louisville under his dad Rick Pitino and at Florida working alongside Billy Donovan. In a short time, Pitino has amassed experience and gathered knowledge playing against the best and coaching with them.

At FIU, he turned around the program in one year, leading FIU to its first winning season since 1999–2000 and a conference title game. At Minnesota, he won the NIT in his first year in 2014 and in 2017 was named Big Ten coach of the year after he led the Gophers to an 11-7 conference record — their most conference wins in 20 years.

As an assistant at Louisville, he helped the Cardinals reach the Elite Eight back-to-back years, adding another Elite Eight appearance when he went to Florida. As an associate head coach at Louisville, he helped guide the Cardinals to a Final Four and 30-10 overall record.

Since 2021, much of the attention on the Pitino name has been his father’s return to coaching as Rick revived Iona and led No. 6 St. John’s to a regular season title in the Big East this season. While Richard’s dad continues to be one of college basketball’s greatest showmen, Richard has been building New Mexico into a mid-major powerhouse over the last four seasons.

“The more you get to know me, I’m a humble guy,” Pitino said. “I am not one who likes to brag and talk about it. I like to show you. The magic is in the work.”

That’s fine, I’ll brag for him.

In the 2021-2022 season — his first year with the Lobos — Pitino finished 13-19 and 5-12 in the Mountain West. The following season, the Lobos went 14-0 to start the year but a disappointing end to conference play saw them finish 22-12 and 8-10 in conference.

Last season was Pitino’s breakout with New Mexico. New Mexico finished 22nd in NET rankings and won the MWC Tournament before losing to Clemson in the first round of the NCAA Tournament — a team that made it to the Elite Eight.

Now, New Mexico is projected to win the Mountain West Conference Tournament for a second-straight year and be a nine-seed in the NCAA Tournament.

When Pitino was brought on to the Florida Gators staff in 2009, it was as an assistant coach, who was skilled in recruiting — a recommendation made by his father to former head coach Billy Donovan. With the transfer portal opening up during his time at New Mexico, Pitino has shown exactly why Donovan added him to his staff all those years ago.

No one has been as instrumental to New Mexico’s success these past two seasons as junior guard Donovan Dent has. The Mountain West Player of the Year is averaging 20.4 points and 6.5 assists per game. He became just the 14th player in DI history with 600 points and 200 assists in a single regular season.

The 116th nationally ranked player in the 2022 class, Dent has emerged as one of college basketball’s best players. In February, he joined 29 other players named to the Naismith Trophy Men’s College Player of the Year Midseason Team and is projected to finish as an NCAA All-American.

A year later, Pitino landed sophomore guard Tru Washington and now Texas Tech forward JT Toppin — the 130th and 133rd nationally ranked recruits. Washington earned honorable mention All-Mountain West honors and the team is undefeated when he scores double-digit points — a feat he has done 12 times in conference play.

Pitino’s staff believed Toppin would enter the NBA draft or remain with the Lobos but on the last day of the portal being open, he transferred to Texas Tech. Toppin was selected by Big 12 coaches as the league’s best player and newcomer of the year this season — the first to be voted such in the Big 12’s 29 years of existence. He was the conference’s only player to finish top three in points and rebounds per game.

Pitino also knows how to grab talent out of the portal. In 2023 he brought in senior center Nelly Junior Joseph from Iona. Joseph earned Mountain West First Team honors alongside Dent and was named to the Mountain West All-Defensive Team.

The 2025 Mountain West Coach of the Year prides himself on using his recruiting skills to build a team and staff that does it the right way.

“If you want to build a great culture, to me, it’s all about the people that you hire and the players that you recruit,” Pitino said in an interview with Hoop HQ’s Alex Squadron. “So I work very, very hard on that part of it.”

There’s no question that North Carolina is the state of college basketball, but for NC State fans, much of that reputation now comes from the schools down the road. As a result, fans of a program who were once the top dogs have become disgruntled as the men’s basketball team has sunk to mediocrity.

With constant comparisons to the blue bloods of Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill, any coach willing to take the NC State job will have to be ready for the highs when you beat them and the lows when you lose.

“You can do special things when people care, you can do special things when people are invested,” Pitino said. “[Fans] are going to have opinions, but that’s ok. Some of the greatest programs in the country have rabid fans. I don’t know too many great programs where the fans don’t care. … You can’t build a championship program with apathy … you have to embrace it.”

If you’re a fan and want another recruiting scandal that sets the program back years and years, one that involves wiretaps and the FBI, then sure, Will Wade is your guy. But if you want wins, and if you want championships, you want Richard William Pitino.