Richard Pitino to remain at New Mexico, no longer considering Louisville opening

A Pitino will not man the sidelines for Louisville basketball next season, as Adam Zagoria and Trilly Donovan report that Richard Pitino, son of Rick Pitino, will remain at New Mexico and is no longer in the running for the Cardinals’ head coaching job.

Here was that report, which Zagoria tweeted out Wednesday morning:

“Richard Pitino will remain at New Mexico and is no longer in the mix at Louisville, per source. First by @trillydonovan.”

Pitino’s name had surfaced in recent days and seemed an option given his father’s extraordinary success on the court with the Cardinals. However, as of Wednesday, Pitino is no longer expected to be in contention for the position.

Louisville has reportedly gone after Scott Drew and Dusty May already, but Drew remained with Baylor and May took the Michigan job. Meanwhile, Indiana State’s Josh Schertz and Charleston’s Pat Kelsey are rumored as potential targets.

More on Louisville coaching search

The Louisville coaching search moves fast, with a new development every few hours, so if you don’t stop to read about the chaos, you might miss it.

To recount, Kenny Payne was fired immediately after the season ended and Louisville reportedly first reached out with a mega offer for Baylor’s Scott Drew, who decided to stay put. FAU’s Dusty May was the next option, and he chose to take the Michigan job instead, but not without plenty of drama.

So, Bob Valvano is the color analyst on Louisville basketball radio broadcasts and said the other day that May had received death threats and that was part of the reason he ultimately chose Michigan over Louisville. However, local reporter Tim Sullivan dug into that claim and got quotes from May denying it there were ever death threats.

“I’ve been off social media since our last game. . .And so I wasn’t even aware of all this until just recently. If I have been (threatened), I have no knowledge of it because I haven’t checked or looked and haven’t heard anything about it,” May said, per Sullivan.

Either way, May is now a few hours north unpacking his luggage in Ann Arbor with the Louisville flirtations completely behind him now. After that became clear, reports were that Josh Schertz was a prime candidate.

But the snag now is that Schertz appears to have a deal in place with St. Louis to become their coach, and if he wants to break that deal to head to Louisville, the Cardinals will have to pay out some sort of buyout and to a university where Schertz never even coached a game.