Pitino, Izzo praise one another ahead of Sunday's NCAA Tournament game

CLEVELAND — Filip Borovicanin admitted the questions coming the Lobos’ way this week in Cleveland were a little surprising.

Few in the first couple days were about the UNM Lobos at all, and the vast majority seemed to be in some form about not their coach, Richard Pitino, but their coach’s dad, Rick Pitino, coach of St. John’s.

Then after Friday’s win over No. 7 Marquette with 10th-seeded UNM now facing No. 2 Michigan State, the questions had an added layer of non-Lobo content.

“I was a little bit surprised about that much questions about Tom Izzo and Rick Pitino, especially for me since I was growing up in Serbia and didn’t really have a chance to watch basketball like that, you know, college basketball,” said Borovicanin, the Belgrade native who came to the United States before the 2022-23 season to play at Arizona.

“But for sure, I still know they’re (two) of the greatest coaches.”

Luckily for the Lobos, their head coach, Richard Pitino, who joked “did you guys know my dad coaches at St. John’s?” when walking from the NCAA press conference dais on Saturday inside Rocket Arena, has plenty of experience and knowledge about Izzo, whose led Michigan State to eight Final Fours.

The 42-year-old Pitino coached for eight seasons at Minnesota in the Big Ten, going 3-9 against Izzo, including on NCAA Tournament loss.

The familiarity, and respect, goes well beyond X’s and O’s.

“The eight years that I was at Minnesota, it was love me, hate me, love me, hate me, it was rocky. We didn’t have a great amount of consistency, and (Izzo) always fought for me and for guys who were on the hot seat all the time, and he didn’t need to do that,” Pitino said. “He knows how hard it is at any job, and he’s just had an amazing amount of consistency.

“But I think more so than winning, the impact that he has on people, younger coaches, that he does not need to wrap his arms around certainly meant a lot to me as — I was 30 years old as a head coach in the Big Ten, and you’re going against a Naismith Hall of Famer. He doesn’t need to spend time with me and do those things, but he does that.”

The 70-year-old Izzo, meanwhile, with his raspy, hoarse voice adding to moment, was asked Friday night after beating a No. 15 Bryant team coached by Phil Martelli Jr., the son of one of his longtime coaching friends, what it’s like knowing he’ll now have to face another son of a longtime coaching friend.

“They (Richard Pitino’s UNM Lobos) beat UCLA, they beat USC, those teams beat us, and I know Richard, and I know Rick,” Izzo said, before deadpanning the line of the night. “Damn family’s ruining my life here.”

Saturday, it was all mutual love between the young Pitino and grizzled Izzo.

“I thought he did a hell of a job (at Minnesota). It was a tough situation he was in. I did stick up for him,” Izzo said. “Jud Heathcote, my old boss, who’s looking down right now and is mad at me that we don’t play more zone, always said if you don’t stick up for coaches, who’s going to?

“So I looked at that as one of my jobs, especially if it was coaches I respect, and were doing it the right way, and (Richard Pitino) did.”

Pitino on Saturday filled the notebooks and voice recorders of several midwestern sports reporters with tons of pro-Izzo content. Maybe Pitino’s most glowing praise came when asked about how difficult it is to maintain a consistent culture for as long as Izzo has done within Michigan State, especially in the current landscape of NIL and high-transfer rates.

“Next to impossible. Only the elite, elite ones have been able to do that, and coach Izzo is absolutely one of those,” Pitino said. “As I said before, not a whole lot changes when you play them, and I say that with the utmost respect, because you’re never going to get a team from Michigan State with Coach Izzo’s coaching that doesn’t play hard. …

“Just the sustained success that he has had, you can’t help but marvel at it.”

When it was suggested that the two were “buttering each other up” with praise the day before their game, Izzo went two directions with his reply.

“I don’t think buttering up is a good word. You never want locker room material,” Izzo said with a grin. “But I would never talk highly of a guy I didn’t respect or like. I just wouldn’t talk about him. So, easy to talk about him because I do like him, and I do respect him.”

Just not on Sunday.

“But come tomorrow, from sunrise to sunset, I don’t like him at all, and don’t let him kid you, he doesn’t like me, either,” Izzo said. “As long as there’s respect, that’s all that really matters.”

The traveling Pitinos

Several Pitino siblings and cousins who watched Rick Pitino’s St. John’s team play, and win, in the NCAA Tournament’s opening round on Thursday in Providence, Rhode Island, flew to Cleveland on Friday to watch Richard Pitino’s Lobos play, and win.

It sounded like quite the party.

“They’re high rollers. They got a plane, so it’s not like they’re flying Southwest middle seat,” Richard Pitino said on Saturday. “They got a private plane from Providence with some cocktails. They seemed like they enjoyed themselves flying down here. And they’re enjoying it. They’re loving it. ...

“My cousin was there, some friends from Louisville, St. John’s, and then they flew back last night (Friday night), and now they’re at that game.”

Richard Pitino didn’t get to see much of the group that paid a short visit to Cleveland before they went back to Rhode Island for Saturday’s Round 2 game — a St. John’s loss to No. 10 Arkansas.

However, the Pitino contingent wasn’t planning a return trip to Rocket Arena on Sunday. Cheering on the Lobos will be Richard, his wife and three children.