Richard Pitino: Following dad's path

~ Tragedy at Duquesne University has helped the son of Rick Pitino mature as a coach.

PITTSBURGH -- The last name alone is enough to stamp Duquesne University's youngest assistant as an on-the-rise college basketball coach.

Pitino.

Yes, Richard Pitino is Louisville coach Rick Pitino's son and is proud of it, though he prefers the more formal Richard. He wants his own identity, and ironically, a tragedy in the early morning hours of Sept. 17 might have helped him achieve that.

After five Duquesne players were shot, four of them only weeks after arriving on campus, other players frantically called Pitino for advice and support. The difficult, demanding and ongoing ordeal has helped the 24-year-old Pitino understand that college coaching involves more than Xs and Os, text messaging recruits and watching game tape.

It was a lesson in growing up fast than nothing in his life could have prepared him for, not even the experience of losing two uncles several months apart in 2001 -- one in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"It's like coach (Ron) Everhart told me, `You came here last spring as a second-year assistant, and now you're a 10-year veteran," Pitino said. "For me it's been a learning experience in how to handle things. Every tragedy is different and you've got to handle it differently with each kid and with each person."

Duquesne (10-14) has rebounded admirably from the terrible incident, winning far more games than expected with a nearly new roster and upsetting Boston College, Xavier, Dayton and Saint Louis.

"I think he's done remarkably well, and I am quite proud of him," said Rick Pitino, who recently visited with his son when Louisville played at Pitt. "Some of the teams they beat, with all their players sitting out, I couldn't believe that."

Duquesne's turnaround may accelerate Pitino's already fast-moving career, one he hopes will someday find him running his own major college program. It is a job he plans to earn not by his last name, but how he performs on his own.

"If you look ahead, you're not doing your job here," he said. "But I definitely want to be a head coach, and I think I will be, but I don't know when."

Still, Pitino said there is much more to learn before that day arrives.

He is only now learning how to recruit -- an important aspect of the game. He didn't see much of that growing up with his father coaching Kentucky and the Boston Celtics.

He is also learning how to deal with players whose performances may be affected by simple matters such as girlfriend problems and classroom worries.

Making his own name

Pitino may be a famous name in the sport, but Richard has not leaned on his father to help him get jobs. His first, as an assistant under Mike Hart at St. Andrew's School in Barrington, R.I., came when he was a freshman at Providence -- only a year after he ended his own high school career.

As a junior and senior at Providence, he broke down film, compiled statistics and helped with practice under Providence coach Tim Welsh, essentially performing a graduate assistant's job as an undergraduate.

"I jumped on that right away because it sped up the process," said Pitino, who has always wanted to coach but was never pushed to do so by his father.

That led to his first post-college job as an administrative assistant at the College of Charleston. He got his first full-time job at Northeastern under Everhart in October, 2005. He accompanied Everhart to Duquesne six months later.

Not that any of this was a surprise to his father, who in 2001 asked a then-18-year-old Richard to accompany him to Louisville when he negotiated taking the job there.

In the younger Pitino, Everhart saw a hardworking young man trying to make his own way in the sport, rather than latching onto the job he probably could have had on his father's staff.

"It doesn't matter that his last name is Pitino," Everhart said. "It could be Smith or Jones and he'd still be a great coach."

Despite maintaining his career independence, Richard Pitino talks with his father at least once a day and often more. The main topic of discussion, besides family, is obvious.

"We talk basketball -- it's what we love," Pitino said. "What else are we going to talk about? It's natural. I'm very influenced by him. I truly believe he's one of the best coaches out there."