Associated Press Boston Celtics head coach Rick
Pitino resigned this past Monday.
By Chris Umpierre
Daily Bruin Staff
Athletic director Peter Dalis said Tuesday that UCLA
hasn’t had “any negotiations whatsoever” with
former Boston Celtic and Kentucky Wildcat coach Rick Pitino
concerning the Bruin head coach basketball position.
On Sunday, Fox Sports reported that the school was in the
process of firing Bruin head coach Steve Lavin and was in the
details phase of signing Pitino, who resigned as Boston coach and
team president on Monday.
Dalis declined the report, saying, “I assured coach Lavin
yesterday that he is our coach.”
While refuting the Fox Sports report, Dalis did admit to having
what he termed “two really kind of friendly, short
conversations that probably didn’t last more than five
minutes” in the last four weeks with Pitino. But the athletic
director made it clear the discussions weren’t about the UCLA
job. He said he made the phone calls on behalf of a mutual friend
who had asked Dalis to speak with Pitino.
“I was doing it on two counts,” Dalis said.
“One, for the mutual friend who asked me to talk to him. And
secondly, to continue to make assessments about the business end. I
should emphasize that continual assessment is the watch word here.
No matter what the sport is, you are constantly assessing where you
are and where you’re going.”
Dalis went on to say that when he assesses a program only 50
percent comes from wins and losses. The other half comes from the
values being portrayed by the program, graduation rates and
more.
Dalis said that all coaches have to deal with issues about job
security.
“I’m not sure if there’s any coach that is
ever reassured about their job,” Dalis said. “There is
always a kind of benign tension that exists between the
administration of the athletic program and the coaches. They never
really feel totally secure.”
Pitino, 48, was a successful college basketball coach before he
took over the Boston Celtics three years ago. In 15 seasons at
Boston University, Providence and Kentucky he registered a 352-124
record, including a national championship with the Wildcats in
1996.
He signed a 10-year, $50 million contract with the Celtics in
1997. But after a 102-146 record in his first three years, he
recently decided to step down as coach.
In the days before his resignation, Pitino made several comments
to the media that he was interested in a “UCLA-type
job.”
Dalis said he called Pitino in mid- December in order to build a
relationship and make connections with potential candidates if a
change in the UCLA head basketball coaching position is made in the
future.
“You always want to be able to have a list of coaches in
case there is a change,” he said. “I’m not
suggesting there is going to be a change. I just want to let you
know that I felt it to be valuable for UCLA to be able to talk to
someone who at some point could become a candidate. You never know
what is going to happen. People leave programs, people are
dismissed from programs.”
Then there is the issue of whether or not UCLA could afford a
Pitino-type coach. With Pitino’s resume, he would command a
$2-3 million a year salary.
That amount per year would be unprecedented for UCLA, which has
historically not paid much for its men’s basketball head
coach. Lavin earns $578,000 a year.
“That is an issue,” Dalis said. “That has been
a concern of mine. But I’ve got to live with that.”
Lavin has been under fire since he took over the Bruin program
in 1997 despite some on-court success. During his tenure, he has
led UCLA to a Pac-10 championship and four NCAA tournament
appearances, including two Sweet 16’s and last year’s
Elite eight finish.
His current contract goes through the 2004-2005 season but at
the end of this season UCLA has a buy out option of $765,000.
In Tuesday’s press conference, Lavin shrugged off the
rumors, instead choosing to have a sense of humor about them.
“I think you have to,” Lavin said.
“You’ll probably end up in a padded cell and a straight
jacket if you can’t laugh at it and see the insanity of all
of it. You probably won’t be as effective when you get on the
floor with your kids in terms of trying to teach and coach and make
sure these kids move towards their degrees.”
This isn’t the first time Lavin has heard these type of
rumors. Two years ago when the Bruins were bounced out of the
tournament in the first round by Detroit Mercy, the rumor was that
Utah Utes’ head coach Rick Majerus was coming to
Westwood.
But Lavin understands that this is the nature of the UCLA
men’s basketball coaching position. All Bruin coaches have
and will be compared to former coach John Wooden, who won 10
national championships at UCLA.
“You understand in this profession that you’re going
to be faced with situations like this on a yearly basis,” he
said. “If you can’t take the hot seat then you need to
get out because this is the kind of job it is.”
While the rumors haven’t got to him, Lavin said they have
been distracting to his team, which is preparing to take on No. 18
USC Thursday at Pauley Pavilion.
“I think it’s very distracting to them when you
don’t know who you’re head coach is going to be,”
Lavin said. “So what you do as a coach is you try to keep
them focused on USC and then Villanova and then into
conference.”