Richard Pitino on facing Michigan State's Tom Izzo: ‘I know the task at hand’

CLEVELAND - New Mexico head coach Richard Pitino has experience facing Tom Izzo and Michigan State. That’s undoubtedly a frame of reference the Lobos head coach can draw upon, but there’s a cautionary side of that ledger, too.  “I think people have got to realize, I coached against Coach Izzo for eight years,” Pitino said during Saturday’s press conference at Rocket Arena. “I didn’t win a lot, but I’ve gone against him many times.” Pitino’s teams when he was head coach at Minnesota from 2014-21 went 3-8 against Izzo’s Spartans. Pitino was busy trying to rebuild the Gopher basketball brand. Meanwhile, Izzo’s Spartans had been rolling for more than two decades. But Pitino won at Breslin Center in his second year with the Gophers in 2015, beat Michigan State in the 2017 Big Ten Tournament Quarterfinals, and beat Michigan State during his final season with the Gophers, the COVID-plagued season of 2021. “I understand what we’re about to walk into because I’ve seen it,” Pitino said. “I’ve seen it at the Breslin Center, I’ve seen it in the Big Ten Tournament, I saw it in the NCAA Tournament, one year we played them.” MORE INSIDE