Louisville great Peyton Siva endorses Richard Pitino as head coach, supports program

Former Louisville basketball player Peyton Siva offered his support for Richard Pitino to take over as the program’s next coach. The son of St. John’s coach Rick Pitino, who coached the Cardinals from 2001-17, Richard Pitino is currently the head coach at New Mexico.

He was also worked with his father as an assistant at Louisville from 2007-09 and was the program’s associate head coach in the 2011-12 season. Siva, who played on the team that year, posted on X that he is in favor of bringing in Richard Pitino to replace Kenny Payne, but added he will be behind whomever the Cardinals hire.

“I love Richard Pitino (he was the one who recruited me to Louisville) and think he’d be a great hire, but I’d fully support whoever the University decided to bring in!” Siva wrote. “I’m just here to see Louisville get back to the top in all sports again.”

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Louisville is coming off of a tumultuous past two seasons under Payne, going a combined 12-52. The Cardinals managed just four wins in 2022-23, their lowest total since the 1940s.

Richard Pitino has been the head coach at New Mexico for the past three seasons and recently led the Lobos to a Mountain West Tournament title and NCAA Tournament berth. He was also previously the coach at FIU and Minnesota, the latter of which he held for eight seasons.

Richard Pitino has an overall coaching record of 220-178 across all three of his stops. However, he has never led a team past the second round in three NCAA Tournament appearances.

Additionally, his father’s tenure at Louisville ended in controversy. The program found itself under federal investigation for an alleged “pay for play” scheme in which an Adidas official reportedly offered a top recruit money to play for the Cardinals. Rick Pitino was terminated ahead of the 2017-18 season.

Still, with the era that we live in now with NIL, it might be time for the program to invite Richard Pitino back to take over. It’s certainly a move that Siva would be in favor of, and it seems the team is considering it too.

Per Jody Demling of Cardinal Authority, Richard Pitino has become a top candidate for the head coaching job at Louisville. On3’s Pete Nakos has since confirmed Demling’s report.