Columnist Dean Juipe: Pitino turns job quest into puzzle

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2001 | 10:12 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

It's an about-face that is ripe for speculation.

Has Rick Pitino lost interest in the UNLV men's basketball program, or is he merely taking his friends' advice and stepping back to further evaluate the situation here?

Or is there something more clandestine going on in regard to UNLV athletic director Charlie Cavagnaro's trip to Miami today to determine Pitino's interest in UNLV? Something that could lead to him informally accepting the head-coaching position with the Rebels without it being announced until after the current season?

These are riddles without conclusive answers right this minute, the result of Pitino canceling a visit to Las Vegas this week to meet with university administrators concerning the likelihood of the coaching job coming open.

The oddity of his withdrawal, whether it's temporary or permanent, is that just a day or two earlier there were hushed but believable reports from insiders who swore Pitino was going to take the UNLV job and do it this week.

These sources were adamant: Pitino was coming and the deal was done. They said the contractual details had all but been finalized and Pitino would be taking over the team's reins if not literally going down to the floor to coach the remainder of the ongoing season.

A once-fanciful idea had moved from conjecture to fact, we were told.

But that was then.

Pitino, it seems, has had second thoughts, perhaps because of associates (like Memphis coach John Calipari) prodding him to slow down and think twice before committing himself to any project, let alone a UNLV program that is on NCAA probation and facing scholarship restrictions.

Pitino's interest in UNLV is or was legitimate, yet options such as UCLA, Kentucky, Indiana and Michigan are back in the picture after seemingly fading into the background over the weekend.

Maybe the notion of coaching the Rebels and resuscitating the program is still at the top of Pitino's list of choices, and maybe he simply realized that there was no real need to rush. Particularly with "interim" coach Max Good taking offense at the rapid-fire pace of Pitino's arrival, Pitino could have elected to avoid the skirmish and let Good finish the season in the coach's role.

Along those lines, there's nothing to say Pitino hasn't agreed in principle to coach the Rebels and that for reasons of discretion he (and his fellow co-conspirators) have decided to clam up and sit mum for a while.

At the other extreme is the possibility that he has come to his senses, as some would say, and deleted UNLV not only from his immediate itinerary but for good. If so, it wouldn't say much for his powers of commitment if he was within a millimeter of accepting the job just a few days ago.

Yet most observers without a Las Vegas address were stunned, absolutely stunned, at last week's reports -- fueled by Pitino himself -- that he was attracted to UNLV and that he might very well be its next head coach. It wasn't that they couldn't comprehend his decision, it's just that they thought it was all happening too soon.

Pitino may now have the same thought. Who knows?

The only sure thing is that he has turned this into a puzzle that isn't easy to unscramble.