NCAA Tournament: Richard Pitino, Lobos won't rely on Rick Pitino's text messaged scouting report on Marquette

When Richard Pitino saw “No. 10 New Mexico” pop up on the screen right below “No. 7 Marquette” during Sunday’s Selection Show event in the Pit, he didn’t need what most coaches need in that moment.

Usually, in the moments between the jubilation of coaches, fans and players celebrating the moment and the CBS analysts starting to spout off their way-too-early upset predictions and Final Four talk, a video coordinator, grad assistant or assistant coach frantically runs off to quickly put together some quick rundown of information about the unfamiliar opponent.

For Pitino, that wasn’t necessary.

You see, in this year of Pitino basketball bliss while father and son — Richard and his UNM Lobos and Rick Pitino and his St. John’s Red Storm — were each winning their leagues and conference coach of the year honors, they also became the biggest fans of each other’s teams.

“I’ve watched Marquette three times because of St John’s, so I’ve got a high level of respect for them,” Richard Pitino said on Sunday when talking to local media about the matchup.

Of course, that doesn’t mean he didn’t get some instant feedback on an early scout of the Golden Eagles, it just wasn’t from any of his coaching staff.

“He (his dad, Rick Pitino) texted me right when it happened (with) the scouting report. I’m like, relax. I don’t need that right now,” Richard Pitino said Sunday.

No, the Lobos coaching staff won’t rely solely on his having watched Marquette a few times on TV while cooking dinner or helping his kids with homework. Nor will he rely solely on the quickly composed text messages his proud dad sent during the Selection Show.

The Lobos will dive into the preparation for the Golden Eagles this week as they would with any other opponent.

And that means an all-hands-on-deck approach involving the entire staff, rather than what many teams do where one assistant is assigned teams throughout the season to put together the primary scouting report.

“I have changed the way that we scout,” Richard Pitino explained. “We don’t have one guy on one team and another guy on another. We don’t do that. What we’ve done all year is (associate head coach) Isaac Chew and (assistant) Tarvish Felton will split up the offensive sets. Aaron (Katsuma) does the underneath out of bounds and the sideline out of bounds stuff. Dave (Pilipovich) does the offensive scout. Danny (Walters) does personnel. So the same. It’ll be the same there (for Marquette like all other games this season).”

As for how much of the St. John’s prior knowledge might be tapped into, there may still be some. After all, the Johnnies did beat Marquette twice in the Big East regular season and again in the Big East Tournament.

“Certainly, I’ll talk to him (Rick Pitino) and my staff will talk to his staff, but you have so much film now, when people call me, I’m always like, ‘Do you not have film? Why are you asking me?,’” Richard Pitino said. “But sometimes it’s nice to kind of get a feel and some calls and things like that. But we’ve got so many things at our disposal to where I’ll put together a game plan just by watching them (on game film).”

More on Marquette

Marquette Golden Eagles

Location: Milwaukee

Coach: Shaka Smart (98-40, 4th season at Marquette; 370-182, 16th season overall)

Conference: Big East (13-7, tied 4th)

NET: 26

KenPom: 28

Torvik: 31

Strength of schedule: 29

Scoring offense: 76.9 points per game

Scoring defense: 68.5 points per game

Key stat (strength): Marquette ranks third nationally in turnover margin at plus-5.5. They force 14.8 per game with their high-pressure defense while committing just 9.3.

Key stat (weakness): The Golden Eagles don’t draw many fouls, ranking 343rd of 364 teams in the percentage of their points that come from the free throw line (15.3%). They attempt 16.3 free throws per game (UNM is top 20 in the country, attempting 23.5 per game).

Key players: It starts with 6-5 senior point guard Kam Jones, who will be on some first-team All America teams released in the coming weeks. Jones averages 19.3 points, 5.9 assists and 1.4 steals per game while hitting 1.9 3-pointers per game. He’s also rated No. 7 in the KenPom.com Player of the Year rankings for best overall statistical season.