Riccardo Fois (born 19 February 1987) is an Italian professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

coach and former player who recently served as an assistant coach for the

Sacramento Kings The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Confere ...

of the

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(NBA). He previously was an assistant coach at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

. He played prep basketball at Boaz High School (

Boaz, Alabama Boaz is a city in Marshall and Etowah counties in the U.S. state of Alabama. The Marshall County portion of the city is part of the Albertville Micropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 10,107. Boaz was ...

) while in the exchange student program and later went onto play college basketball for the

Pepperdine Waves The Pepperdine Waves are the athletics teams of Pepperdine University, located outside the city of Malibu, California. They compete at the NCAA Division I, Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA. The school is a me ...

Playing career

When Fois first moved to the United States, he played the 2007–08 season at Pepperdine and was named to the WCC Commissioner's Honor Roll. Fois played professionally in Italian 3rd-tier

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

from 2009 to 2012. He played for Robur Basket Osimo and Pallacanestro Firenze.

National team career

Fois was a member of the Italy national under-16 team at the 2003 European Championship for Cadets in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, Spain. Over six tournament games, he averaged 0.8 points and 0.8 rebounds per game.

Coaching career

Fois served as a graduate assistant for the men's basketball program at

Pepperdine University Pepperdine University () is a private university, private Christianity, Christian research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ, with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Pepperdine's main campus consists ...

from 2012 to 2014. Fois worked for the Gonzaga University men's basketball program for five seasons (2014–2019), elevating to the title of director of analytics. In this role, he handled video breakdown and exchange, evaluated player analytics and assisted the coaching staff with day-to-day program operations. The Bulldogs advanced at least as far as the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament in all five of Fois' seasons, and he helped the program reach its first-ever Final Four in 2017, played in

Glendale, Arizona Glendale () is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. Located about nine miles northwest of the state capital Phoenix, Glendale is known for State Farm Stadium, which is the home of the Arizona Cardinals football team. The city al ...

, when Gonzaga finished as national runner-up. Fois assisted Gonzaga's head coach

Mark Few Mark Norman Few (born December 27, 1962) is an American college basketball coach who has been the head coach at Gonzaga University since 1999. He has served on Gonzaga's coaching staff since 1989, and has led the Bulldogs from mid-major obscur ...

as the video coordinator for the

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coached by Few that won the bronze medal at the

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, Canada. Fois was an assistant coach for the Italian national team during the 2017 FIBA EuroBasket championship, serving on the staff of

Ettore Messina Ettore Messina (born 30 September 1959) is an Italian professional basketball coach who is the head coach of Olimpia Milano of the Italian Lega Basket Serie A (LBA). He has won four EuroLeague championships as a head coach. Messina is regarded a ...

. On June 26, 2019, Fois joined

Monty Williams Tavares Montgomery Williams (born October 8, 1971) is an American professional basketball coach, executive, and former player of the National Basketball Association (NBA) who is the head coach of the TMI Episcopal’s boys basketball team. He pre ...

with the

Phoenix Suns The Phoenix Suns are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. The Suns compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Conference (NBA), We ...

as director of player development. After a first season where the Suns miss the playoff by a game after going undefeated in the bubble, the Suns take off and make the

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losing only to the Bucks. In 2021 he signed with

with

Tommy Lloyd Tommy Lloyd (born December 21, 1974) is an American college basketball coach who is the current head coach at the University of Arizona of the Big 12 Conference. His 61 wins in the first two seasons are the most for any head coach in NCAA Divis ...

as an assistant coach. In 3 years Arizona collected two Pac-12 championships and two Pac-12 regular season. While they fall short of to a Final Four, the Wildcats were a 1 seed and twice a 2 seed in the NCAA tournament and reached two sweet 16 in 3 years. In 2021 he also joined coach

Gianmarco Pozzecco Gianmarco Pozzecco (born 15 September 1972) is an Italian professional basketball coach and former player who is currently the head coach of Italy men's national basketball team. Pozzecco is one of the best known figures in the Italian basketba ...

as an assistant in the Italian National team. They lost to eventual silver medalist France in the quarter final of the 2021 Eurobasket after upsetting Nikola Jokic's Serbia in the previous round. In 2023 they lost in the quarter finals of the

FIBA World Cup The FIBA Basketball World Cup is an international basketball competition between the senior men's national teams of the members of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), the sport's global governing body. It takes place every four ye ...

in the Philippines vs. the US, the first Italian appearance in the top 8 in the world in over 20 years. On 9 September 2024, Fois was hired as an assistant coach by the

. On 3 May 2025, Fois was not retained as an assistant coach of the Kings. Fois is credited with developing and helping numerous players during his career: from

Domantas Sabonis Domantas Sabonis (; born May 3, 1996) is a Lithuanian–American professional basketball player for the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Lithuanian national team. Son of the Hall of Fame player Arvydas Sabon ...

Zach Collins Zach Collins (born November 19, 1997) is an American professional basketball player for the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Gonzaga Bulldogs. He was drafted by the Sacramento Kings ...

Killian Tillie Killian Wiard Tillie (born 5 March 1998) is a French professional basketball player for Unicaja Malaga of the Liga ACB. He played college basketball for the Gonzaga Bulldogs. Tillie joined Gonzaga University beginning in the 2016–17 season. Y ...

Rui Hachimura is a Japanese professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball, Gonzaga Bulldogs and has played for the Japan nation ...

in his time at Gonzaga, to

Mikal Bridges Mikal Bridges ( ; born August 30, 1996), nicknamed “the Warden”, is an American professional basketball player for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Villanova Wildcats men' ...

and Cam Johnson with the Suns, until Ben Mathurin, Dalen Terry, Christian Koloko and Pelle Larson at Arizona.

Personal life

Fois earned his bachelor's degree in integrated marketing communication from the

in 2008 and earned his master's degree in business administration from Pepperdine in 2014.

References

External links