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The Way I See It
NOW that he's divorced the Boston Celtics, Rick Pitino is the hottest available coaching property in the nation. A Pitino return to
Hawaii not impossibleThey're saying he'll go back to college. Kentucky. Indiana. UNLV. Michigan. St. John's. UMass. These are just some of the schools widely speculated upon as Pitino's next logical landing pad.
They might be able to afford him, and they all have national title potential.
Anything better than a snowball's chance in the hot place that Pitino could return to Hawaii?
I doubt it, but I wouldn't rule it out.
This is where it all began for him, as a very, very young man.
He won his first collegiate game as an acting head coach for the Rainbows in 1976 at the age of 23. Taking over the team for the last six games of a troubled season, he went 2-4.
But he coached, as the late Star-Bulletin associate sports editor Bill Gee, wrote, "with a wisdom beyond his years."
When he came here in 1974 after a playing career at UMass, he took over Hawaii's junior varsity program and became the varsity's "super recruiter." He opened a lot of doors in his native New York, a perpetual gold mine of basketball talent.
Pitino stunned college observers when he recruited three of the top six players from the New York City area in 1975. The late Reggie Carter was the prize catch, a player coveted by just about every major program in the nation.
And when the 1976 season -- a tempestuous one which led to a two-year probation for the program -- came to an end, he applied to become permanent head coach.
At the time, Pitino told our senior columnist, Bill Kwon, how badly he wanted to stay in Hawaii.
With funds tied up in the coaching search, he recruited out of his own pocket in March 1976. Pitino even told Kwon that if he didn't get the job, he'd be willing to stay here as an assistant coach.
IN the end, Pitino was encouraged to move on as Hawaii sought to cleanse itself of the people who played roles in the incidents that prompted an NCAA investigation.
The most notorious incident was a TV commercial for a local car dealership featuring four Rainbow players ("The Cutter Four"), including Carter.
Former Star-Bulletin sportswriter Harry Blauvelt wrote in 1989 that Pitino was named eight times in the NCAA Committee on Infractions report dated March 18, 1977.
Pitino went to Syracuse as an assistant, and eventually won a NCAA title with Kentucky.
He was was still sensitive about his Hawaii experience in 1989 when he was being hired by the Wildcats' program. He publicly denied any wrongdoing during a press conference in Lexington, Ky.
But Pitino's career credentials (if you can forget his Twilight Zone time in Boston) should sweep away all bad memories of paradise. So, maybe there's a snowball's chance he would come back.
Since the hiring of June Jones, you get the impression that the athletic department has started to set his sights higher for coaching talent. With Riley Wallace's retirement drawing nearer, there could be a job opening before Pitino decides to put away his golf clubs.
Pitino made about $23 million for less than four seasons in Boston, and had no problem with leaving the remainder of a 10-year, $50 million deal on the table.
He doesn't need money right now. But Boston was his first failure and he does need to restore some pride.
Taking care of unfinished business in Hawaii might be a way to begin.
Pat Bigold has covered sports for daily newspapers
in Hawaii and Massachusetts since 1978.
Email Pat: pbigold@starbulletin.com