MINNEAPOLIS _ When Minnesota plays Michigan State in its biggest home game yet this season Sunday, it won't be a coaching matchup between Tom Izzo and Rick Pitino's son.
Maybe that was the storyline when Richard Pitino first took on the Spartans and the iconic Izzo six years ago, as a newly hired 30-year-old college basketball coach. No longer.
How often anymore do you hear his Hall of Fame father's name linked to him and the Gophers?
Richard Pitino doesn't. And he prefers it that way.
"I've obviously had some success," Pitino said. "For me, I don't look at being in his shadow, because I'm not coaching at Louisville or Kentucky. I've never really felt like I've ever been under his shadow as the head coach at Minnesota."
Pitino wanted to forge his own path, and he's done so in his seven seasons in Minnesota. He's also learned how career-defining it is to go your own way. Other second-generation college basketball coaches have discovered that as well, some sooner than others.
Doors open quickly for sons of coaches, but for every Tony Bennett, Eric Musselman or Scott Drew, there's a Pat Knight or Sean Sutton. Pitino is somewhere in the middle. Outcomes of games such as Sunday's will weigh heavily on where Pitino ultimately falls on that scale.
Being a Big Ten coach comes with its own pressure _ but not like running the same program or coaching in the same leagues where your father won NCAA titles or went to Final Fours.
Pitino didn't want that.
"It would've been a totally different element _ where you're going to be constantly compared to your dad," he said. "I'm in the Big Ten. I think after (seven) years being in it, being to the NCAA Tournament two of the last three years and winning an NIT title, I think now my body of work kind of speaks for itself a little bit."
The Gophers are 123-100 under Pitino since he was hired before the 2013-14 season. Fans have celebrated the highs of two NCAA Tournaments and his 2017 Big Ten Coach of the Year honor _ and they've dreaded the lows of a couple of losing seasons and inconsistency recruiting local talent.
Pitino is a survivor of sorts. His critics can be loud, and their voices were rising again earlier this season when the Gophers got off to a 4-5 start and top recruits committed to rivals. But the Gophers have rebounded, winning three of their past four to earn some NCAA Tournament talk.
For all the ups and downs, the criticisms and accolades, there's this: Later this week, Pitino will become the Gophers' leader in games coached this millennium. And his predecessors, such as Tubby Smith and Dan Monson, and Big Ten peers such as Izzo are the coaches to whom Pitino is most often compared around here. Not his father.
"People are starting to understand that he's got his system, he's got his beliefs of how he runs a program and what he does," Pitino said. "I'm proud to be my father's son, but he really doesn't have a whole lot of influence in our program."
