Originally Posted by
throatybeard
Speaking of Pitinos, here's my mad scientist take for the day.
I think Indiana should consider courting Rick Pitino. I'm taking the contra case as a given and assuming you can make it all in your heads by the time you finish reading this paragraph. Stay with me here for the pro case, for the sake of argument.
Setting: Indiana is down. A little bit worse than down, because they've now squandered their last high water mark, the three S16s in four years with Crean, with a hire that completely didn't work out. As we've discussed, they're running on the fumes of their legacy. It's still a good job, but not a great one. OSU and MSU stay good, but now Michigan, Illinois, and Iowa, who were down, are up, way up in Michigan's case, and you've added Maryland too. The conference is tougher. Many of the factors that make Bloomington one of the most desirable college towns in the country to aging nerds like me probably aren't high on the list or attractions to 18yo who probably regard the place as kinda middle of nowhere.
Another limitation the school has in the current marketplace for talent is this old school "wholesome farm boy" value which--let's not go into this but at least quickly glance at its relevance for recruiting purposes--is not without a racial vector. There's been a culture there of AfAm players being cool and all as long as they know their place and seem like the right sort, or something like that. Past ethics, this also makes it harder to recruit the coasts/Chicago/Detroit than it needs to be. Enough said, I hope that's within the rules.
So at IU, you are attempting to rebuild from a lower floor than the before the last successful period. Demographic tides are moving away from you. Keeping up with the B1G Joneses is harder. You owe the fired coach a stack of bills. You need to get nationally relevant again, and most anybody who's already nationally relevant won't want to risk their reputation for what is nowadays a second tier job. You need a splash.
Pitino comes with obvious negatives, but could solve a number of problems.
1) Long history of successful rebuilds, salvaging Kentucky from the mess left by Sutton and Louisville from tailing off during late Crum. He's already done what you're asking him to do at plus basketball schools, twice. And he has Iona back in NCAAT for first time in 40y.
2) Older but not prohibitively so (68). A successful 7y contract would get him to retirement and have you building from a much higher floor, if it works out.
3) Instant recruiting chops, which helps you with three four five stars from the coasts, including NYC. You've got the kid from Wabash thing covered. You need help convincing top talent from big cities to pick you over Duke/UNC/UM/MSU/OSU/&c.
4) His damaged-goods status is exactly why you can get him. And pay him well, but less than you'd have had to a few years ago.
5) His performance probably has a high floor. While you have to pay him, that gives you a minute to get out from under the Miller contract, because you won't have to fire another experiment, in year three.
6) Mouse Sports suddenly won't shut up about you. Duke made more news for a next-next-four out season that you did for firing your coach. Pitino shows up and they'll be yakkityyakking about you as much or more than MSU/Izzo and UM/Howard.
7) The man already knows the Ohio River Valley, which, by the way,
8) Stick a sfork right in Kentucky's eye.
What's in it for Pitino:
1) Salvage reputation hit from UL on the national stage rather than at Iona.
2) Get paid B1G salary, not Iona salary.
3) Coach third legendary program in HOF career, take sixth program to NCAAT. Who's done that?
4) The bar for success isn't quite as suffocating as if, say, he'd followed RMK at IU in 2000/2001 when he started at UL. Getting them back to several NCAATs would be an improvement on now, a few S16s better than that, and even just one FF would make him a savior. That's different from where Mike Davis was post-2002.
You make it clear to him that the leash for funny business is incredibly short; he's less likely to test it because this is his posterity tour.
Drawbacks I haven't mentioned. Mrs Pitino supposedly hates places smaller than NYC metro.
Not a long term solution, though that's kind of the point. He could act up and get you in trouble, obviously, but you're already in a deep hole.
At least talk to him. It's so crazy it just might work.