Richard Pitino is expected to remain the head coach of the Golden Gophers men’s basketball team, but he was tempted to leave Minnesota for the job at Alabama.
Pitino’s father, Louisville coach Rick Pitino, told Jim Rome Wednesday that he is proud his son chose to stay in Minnesota despite “seriously considering” a move.
“I met with the Alabama athletic director in talking about different guys for that job and Richard’s name came up,”Rick Pitino told Rome, via the Star Tribune. “Richard was seriously considering making that move. But he called me up and said ‘You know, Dad, Alabama is a great job but I don’t deserve it.’ You know what, for a 32-year-old, that’s about as proud as I can be as a dad. He was just so humble – he said ‘I haven’t done enough to warrant any move, or even consider any move. He said we’ve got a tough rebuilding job here at Minnesota and I’m going to get it done.’”
Rome then asked Rick if he would have had that same perspective as a young coach, and he joked he “would have been out the door in a second.”
The conversation about the younger Pitino starts at the 4:40 mark of the video below.
Here’s Pitino’s statement from early April in which he shut down all rumors about his interest in Alabama.
Statement from #Gophers coach @MNCoachPitino pic.twitter.com/SgSocDHA7O
— Minnesota Men's Basketball (@GopherMBB) April 3, 2015
Now Gopher fans just have to sweat out Florida’s hiring process after Billy Donovan took a job in the NBA with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Pitino was an assistant at Florida under Donovan from 2009-2011.
