Pitino at UH is a ‘what if’ that’s not worth pondering

Is this the year that those old enough to remember Rick Pitino as a University of Hawaii basketball coach finally let go and stop torturing themselves with the enduring question of “What if … ?” 

As in: What if Pitino had gotten that permanent UH head coaching job he had his heart so set on in 1976-77?

It is a query that invariably pops up this time of year because whatever team Pitino is piloting is usually deep in the NCAA Tournament, while UH has long since called it a season.

Monday it was Louisville, again, the third school Pitino has coached to a Final Four appearance and second to a national championship.

But it has pretty much been this way for 30 years now, ever since Pitino led Boston University, the first of his four college teams, to the beginning of a string of 18 overall NCAA Tournament appearances.

This year just came with the bonus of election into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame.

Pitino’s personal road to coaching fame and fortune began at the corner of Ward Avenue and Kapiolani Boulevard, though you won’t hear him mention his Blaisdell Center days much.

In fact, you have to dig pretty deep in Pitino’s 31-paragraph official bio at Louisville to find his first coaching job as a 22-year-old graduate assistant at UH in 1974-75. Or that Pitino started the tempestuous ’75-76 season as an assistant and ended up as interim head coach the final six games (2-4), after Bruce O’Neil was relieved during an expanding scandal.

Pitino coveted the job when it opened up for 1976-77, aggressively pursuing it, and going so far as to ask officials to call off the search and hire him while much of the talent — Reggie Carter, Henry Hollingsworth and George Lett — scattered.

Instead, the search proceeded, and UH eventually hired Centenary coach Larry Little.

But before you start counting imaginary NCAA Tournament appearance banners in the rafters, remember the NCAA Committee on Infractions was amassing what became “Case No. 560,” in which Pitino’s name surfaced eight times amid allegations of 68 UH violations. They included helping to arrange free flights for players, giving out coupons for free meals and filing an “erroneous” statement about involvement.

Pitino, who has denied the allegations, landed as an assistant at Syracuse for two seasons before becoming a 25-year-old head coach at BU.

Meanwhile, UH was slapped with a two-year probation and Pitino was among those the school was supposed to sever ties with. It would be 12 years before UH reached the postseason again under Riley Wallace.

“The young coaches are much better than I was at their age,” Pitino told a press conference Saturday. “I was always looking to move up the ladder and overly ambitious.”

Whether Pitino would have dragged UH deeper into the NCAA’s doghouse or, lessons learned, turned the program around, we’ll never know. But chances are he would not have been here long either way.

Not long enough to make “What if …?” a question worth asking.

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Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.