The No. 10-seed New Mexico Lobos won their first NCAA Tournament game since 2012 on Friday night, defeating No. 7-seed Marquette, 75-66.
The Richard Pitino-led team avenged its 2024 first-round loss, when it entered the 64-team field as the Mountain West Conference champion but fell to Clemson in the NCAA Tournament.
This season, the Lobos finished at the top of the regular-season standings but lost to Boise State in the semifinal game of the conference tournament.
Pitino will join his father, St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino, in the Round of 32 — the first father-son head coaching duo to do so in March Madness history, per the TBS broadcast.
“This is a very nervous day for me, not because of Arkansas but because my son’s playing tonight,” the elder Pitino told reporters ahead of New Mexico’s game on Friday.
He noted that he knew what is son was “in for” having coached against Big East Conference rival Marquette twice already this season.
But Richard Pitino’s squad handled business despite the lead changing hands multiple times throughout the game.
One of the Golden Eagles’ best players, Stevie Mitchell, was held to just one basket on seven field goal attempts, indicating Richard Pitino took a page out of his father’s game plan.
New Mexico, the No. 10-seed in the South Region, is now the fifth double-digit seed to advance to the Round of 32 this year.
It joins No. 12-seeds McNeese State and Colorado State, No. 11-seed Drake and fellow No. 10-seed Arkansas in the 2025 tournament’s upset lore.
The most double-digit seeds to advance past the first round was 10 in 2016. It’s unlikely that total will be matched this year.
The Lobos now await the winner of No. 15-seed Bryant vs. No. 2-seed Michigan State, which tipped off late Friday night. That second-round tilt is scheduled for Sunday.
