Riccardo Fois is in his third season at Arizona after joining the staff in September 2021.
He spent part of the summer in 2023 as an assistant coach for the Italian national team at the 2023 FIBA World Cup in the Philipines.
His role in player development continued to shine in his second year at Arizona, helping Azuolas Tubelis lead the Pac-12 in scoring and rebounding and become a consensus Second Team All-American. His work with Oumar Ballo shined bright at the 2022 Maui Invitational, where Ballo claimed MVP honors and would go on to earn First Team All Pac-12 honors.
In year one with the Wildcats in 2021-22, he played a large role in the development of three NBA Draft picks - Bennedict Mathurin (6th), Dalen Terry (18th) and Christian Koloko (33rd). He helped Azuolas Tubelis earn First Team All Pac-12 Honors as a sophomore after earning honorable mention status in 2021 and Pelle Larsson was named the Pac-12 Sixth Man of the Year.
In the summer of 2022, he was the only NCAA assistant coach to be on the coaching staff at FIBA EuroBasket 2022, serving as an assistant coach for Italy as they advanced all the way to the quarterfinals. He was also an assistant coach for the Italian national team at FIBA EuroBasket 2017, coaching alongside legendary Italian coach Ettore Messina. He was the video coordinator for the 2015 USA Basketball Pan-American Games team, coached by Gonzaga head coach Mark Few, that won a bronze medal in Toronto.
Over the last two seasons, Fois (Pronounced “FOYCE”) has played a role in Suns’ ascent in the NBA’s Western Conference. After narrowly missing the playoffs in 2020, Phoenix got off to its best start to a season since 2014 and positioned itself as one of the top seeds in the West in 2021 behind the development of former Wildcat and No. 1 overall NBA Draft Pick Deandre Ayton, All-Star Devin Booker and Mikal Bridges.
Prior to joining the Suns staff, spent five seasons working with Lloyd in a variety of roles on the coaching staff at Gonzaga. As the director of analytics with the Zags, he handled video breakdown and exchange while also providing player analytics and assisting the coaching staff on a day-to-day basis.
Gonzaga advanced to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament in each of his five seasons in Spokane, highlighted by a run to the national championship game, which was played in Phoenix, during the 2017 season.
Prior to joining the staff at Gonzaga, Fois played professionally in Serie B Basket in Italy from 2009-12 and was a member of Italy’s U16 team that played in the FIBA European U16 Championship in Madrid in 2003. As a member of the Italian junior national team program from 2004-08, he was teammates with Danilo Gallinari and Gigi Datome.
A native of Olbia, Italy, Fois first arrived in the United States to play basketball at Pepperdine for the 2007-08 season and earned his bachelor’s degree in Integrated Marketing Communication. He returned to the Waves as a graduate assistant (2012-14) and picked up his master’s in business administration.
