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SLU Boosters tried to Lure Pitino to SLU from Louisville


TheA_Bomb

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I posted this in the thread about the rivals/yahoo article by Pat Forde but it deserves its own thread. This is the quote:

"Chaifetz spearheaded the novel idea in 2007 that SLU should put together a big offer and make a bold run at breaking its historic coaching mold.

The school sent out feelers to Rick Pitino, but couldn’t get him to leave Louisville. They eventually zeroed in on Majerus, who had just finished his third season as an ESPN analyst."

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news;_ylt=Aj5eZ25xPyI_nS7MCrHM53nevbYF?slug=pf-forde_majerus_billikens_contenders_atlantic_10_122811

That is the first I'd ever heard of that. Imagine the splash that would've made to lure Pitino away to SLU. Bold moves and I'm glad we have Chaifetz interested in the Billikens now.

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Pretty sure he said he was done at the end of contract in 2017

Your right. When re-reading the news clippings I thought that was kind of dumb announcing it so far off and making yourself a 'lame duck' for that long. Certainly does not help on recruiting. Unless its his plan to take that to the bargaining table when he re-negotiates a new contract.

I don't re-call Al McGuire, Dean Smith or John Wooden announcing plans to retire that many years away.

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Your right. When re-reading the news clippings I thought that was kind of dumb announcing it so far off and making yourself a 'lame duck' for that long. Certainly does not help on recruiting. Unless its his plan to take that to the bargaining table when he re-negotiates a new contract.

I don't re-call Al McGuire, Dean Smith or John Wooden announcing plans to retire that many years away.

I agree... Very strange move on Pitino's part. He's going to have a tough time pulling in any recruits for '15-'17 unless Louisville announces a prominent successor way in advance.

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I agree... Very strange move on Pitino's part. He's going to have a tough time pulling in any recruits for '15-'17 unless Louisville announces a prominent successor way in advance.

I agree... Very strange move on Pitino's part. He's going to have a tough time pulling in any recruits for '15-'17 unless Louisville announces a prominent successor way in advance.

The kids he recruits all think they are going to be one and done, so it may not effect him that much.
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UL is most noted for its major in Ponieology, aka How to win big at the track. Although, having attended a few Billiken games in Freedom Hall, UL's dance teams are defintitely in the top 10 year in and year out.

On another note, you have to wonder what other names may have surfaced in these discussions about bringing in a big time HC; Calipari, Self, Weber, Billy the Kid, Crean, Lavin, maybe even Bobby K the General? And if any of them took the bundle would Fr. B have given his blessing? I'm betting Billikan has the answer to this.

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It is doubtful we ever had a serious chance at him. It seems unlikely in '07 (or even now) we would be able to match his current $3.9 million/yr salary.

His announcement of retirement at the end of his current contract (2017) seems strange UNLESS there is a successor already in place . My guess is his son (an assistant coach now) will be announced sometime in the future ....probably before 2015.

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I just hope when Rick decides to hang it up that we don't get back to the Soderberg types. God help us all if that happens.

If this goes the way it should while RM is here, ie multiple dance invites, the biggies won't allow him to do it. Not saying PM was the next in line, let's see how he does at Loyola C, but I sure hope it's not Whitesell or Crews. RM had name recognition and we at least want to follow him up with either a young great up and coming AC who can recruit, or a name HC that kids want to play for. Look what happened at Utah after RM's departure. We don't want to go thru a similar situation. If I recall, wasn't Weber considered to replace Spoon, which would have been a lot wiser move than bringing in a WC guy like Zo.

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Considering the offensive terms in Italian I learned to make signs and yell at Patino in my student section days, that would have been strange for me.

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Pitino has certainly had a few issues of late. I don't think we had a chance in hell of luring him to SLU but I like it that some people took it upon themselves to make a change. They had some b&lls to consider these guys. It is looking like it will pay off this year.

So with Majerus as coach we are always a bit uneasy about him leaving for whatever reason. I think as long as these boosters stay interested in the program they will support SLU getting a quality coach in the future. Now big time $ boosters can be a problem too we've seen it on a smaller scale with the forced name change to the Baby Blues, but so far our guys have been positive for the program.

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A few have noticed some factual indiscretions in the article so I had one of my father's in the know friends take a look at it. He validated my thoughts and others. Dr. Chaifetz hadn't taken a leading role in the athletic program at the time of Majerus' hiring. He had little to nothing to do with it behind the scenes or in front of them. He became a vociferous supporter after the hire. While the Pitino rumors could be true, once again I doubt very much Dr. Chaifetz had anything to do with it either. We certainly owe a lot of the success we are having to him though so we should probably just grant him the ability to rewrite history.

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