Xavier head coach Richard Pitino dropped a hilarious comment to analyst Matt Norlander’s recent article questioning the Big East Conference’s priorities.
Norlander promoted his article with a tweet stating that the Big East cannot keep relying on the accolades of UConn coach Dan Hurley and St. John’s coach Rick Pitino.
He also highlighted how the conference will likely spend around $135 million plus this season on its teams after the collective spending capacity skyrocketed.
“The Big East can’t keep latching its reputation to the coaching credentials of Hurley & Pitino,” Norlander tweeted. With a new commish and a collective spending budget of $135 million+ across 11 rosters, a huge season awaits for the only basketball-first power conference.”
Richard Pitino, Rick Pitino’s son, hilariously took credit for his dad’s mention.
“He’s right. Me and Dan Hurley can only do so much,” Richard Pitino tweeted.
Inhis CBS Sports article, Matt Norlander highlighted how Dan Hurley helped UConn compete for the national championship last season, even though only three teams from the Big East made March Madness.
“While NIL spending boosted across the high-major landscape, the Big East’s coaches, athletic directors and presidents were especially motivated coming off arguably the league’s worst regular season in its 47-year history,” Norlander wrote. Though UConn (again) salvaged so much of the league’s reputation by making an NCAA title game run as a No. 2 seed, the conference sent just three teams to the Big Dance (St. John’s was a 5 seed, Villanova was an 8).
“Three bids marked the fewest in Big East history. The league also ranked fifth out of the Power Five conferences in advanced metrics due to Butler, Creighton, Marquette and Providence all failing well short of expectations.”
Both UConn and St. John’s made the NCAA Tournament. Rick Pitino and his team were crowned the 2025-26 season’s Big East regular-season and tournament champions. They made it to the Sweet Sixteen but were eliminated by the Duke Blue Devils.
Meanwhile, Richard Pitino and the Xavier Musketeers finished 15-18 (6-14 in the Big East). This was his debut campaign with the program after replacing Sean Miller.
Richard Pitino gets honest about expectations for Year 2 with Xavier
At the 2026 Big East Media Day, Richard Pitino sat down with Matt Norlander for an interview.
While discussing expectations for the upcoming season, the Xavier coach talked about the possibility of making the NCAA tournament.
“I mean, I’m never going to talk that way,” Pitino said. “Year 1, right or wrong, I always kind of look at it as a throwaway season. I look at the Xavier job as an opportunity for me to show that I can coach at the highest level.
“I believe it’s a great opportunity for me and Xavier. And I believe that Xavier should be a player in this league. I think this year, the Big East is going to have five to six teams in the NCAA tournament. I think the investment has increased in a lot of places, ourselves included. So, do I talk like the endgame? No, because so many things can happen. But moving forward, I want to be competing for championships.”
Xavier last made March Madness during the 2024-25 season. However, they were eliminated by Illinois in the first round.
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