Texas Basketball: Rick Pitino a controversial head coaching candidate

The talk of the town on the Forty Acres this weekend is the looming coaching search that the Texas basketball program is about to undertake. Following the hiring of the now former Texas head coach Shaka Smart by the Marquette Golden Eagles out of the Big East, which was first reported back on March 26, this program is left to do a coaching search that many figured would’ve happened anyway.

Smart and the Longhorns had a really disappointing end to the 2020-21 season following an early exit in March Madness last weekend. The three-seed Texas fell short back on March 20 in the Round of 64 as nearly double-digit favorites ahead of tip-off at the hands of Joe Golding and the upset-minded 14-seed Abilene Christian Wildcats.

Texas had their now former head coach on a scorching hot seat entering what will be a long offseason anyway. And the all too common storyline of Smart’s hot seat got tiresome following the upset loss against ACU.

Smart made the decision easy for Texas athletic director Chris del Conte entering the offseason, as he was hired by Marquette to take the place of the recently fired former Golden Eagles head coach Steve Wojciechowski.

Early candidates in the discussion as to who could replace Smart this offseason as the next Texas head coach commonly includes names such as Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Chris Beard, Brooklyn Nets assistant Royal Ivey, and Oregon Ducks head coach Dana Altman, among others. But there are a few other names worth watching in the coming weeks among potential head coach candidates.

An alternative Texas basketball approach with Rick Pitino

A name that has come up this weekend that could be a potential coaching candidate for the Longhorns to replace Smart is the current Iona head coach (formerly of the Louisville Cardinals) Rick Pitino. A piece on March 26 from Kyle Boone of CBS Sports mentioned Pitino as a potential candidate on the hot board for Texas.

Pitino certainly brings a plethora of coaching experience and prominence to the table if the Longhorns wanted to consider him. The 68-year-old Pitino had his first college hoops head coaching job with Hawaii way back during the 1975-76 season.

Since then, Pitino has coached with Boston University, Louisville, Iona, Providence, and Kentucky. He is a three-time SEC Coach of the Year, two-time TSN Coach of the Year, and one-time NABC Coach of the Year. Pitino holds a career head coaching record of 782-277 (.738 winning percentage).

The former UMass product has won more than a dozen conference tournament titles during his time as a college head coach. And he has a seven Final Four appearances, 10 regular season conference titles, 22 NCAA Tournament appearances, and two National Championships under his belt.

There’s no questioning the success of Pitino over the course of more than 35 years as a college hoops head coach. But he was recently dismissed from his position as Louisville head coach following a controversial scandal less than five years ago. The last season he was Louisville’s head coach was in 2016-17.

And according to a report from ESPN roughly one year ago, Dismissed stated that he “deserved to be fired” by the Cardinals. That would be a controversial look to some degree if the Longhorns did hire him, or at least put him in the running, to be their next head coach after the Smart departure.

Pitino’s first season returning to the college hoops coaching ranks came with Iona this season. And he finished up with a record of 12-6 with a MAAC Tournament title and lost in the Round of 64 as a 15-seed at the hands of the two-seed Alabama Crimson Tide.