Columnist Dean Juipe: Next team expects a ‘new’ Pitino

Dean Juipe

Friday, Jan. 19, 2001 | 10:32 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.

Whatever team hires Rick Pitino as its next head coach is expecting a changed man.

It will draw on the inferences he has made that would indicate his days as a nomadic, money-hungry, quick-fix solution of a basketball coach are over.

It will want a commitment from him not unlike many he has made in the past, except this time it will expect him to fulfill it.

This, of course, will not be a wholly unreasonable request.

Yet Pitino's track record through 22 years of coaching is that he is easily swayed, easily discouraged and easily prone to see a greener grass on the other side. He has been the beneficiary of five head-coaching jobs at the collegiate and professional levels, and in at least four of those he implied that he might be there for life.

Inevitably, however, he moves on, most recently quitting as the Boston Celtics' head coach and president in spite of an incredibly lucrative contract that the Celtics once hoped would bind him to them for many years to come.

Pitino has hopscotched from Boston University (1978-83) to Providence (1985-87) to the New York Knicks (1987-89) to Kentucky (1989-97) to the Celtics (1997-01) without ever planting permanent roots.

It is seen by some as a shortcoming.

While climbing any profession's pecking order shows a desire to succeed at higher and higher levels, Pitino is threatening Fred Astaire's career record for vertical moves. From the Knicks to Kentucky to the Celtics was a nifty three-step, except no one -- perhaps even Pitino himself -- could tell if he was bettering himself or merely changing jobs for change's sake.

The only certainty within those moves was that he followed the money trail, with each new employer piling higher and higher stacks of greenbacks in Pitino's account.

In terms of facts and what he can and cannot get away with, Pitino need not change. He can continue on his avaricious quest until St. Peter beckons, as there will always be schools and teams out there willing to pay him for what might be an abbreviated length of service.

He could coach a different team every year for the next 20 years and get away with it, which is a testament to his perceived ability.

But Pitino, who is being courted by UNLV among others, has let on that even he is tiring of his nomadic ways. Hence, his expressed desire to return to college basketball, where coaches can -- under the right circumstances -- settle in for lengthy stays without being pressured to abdicate their throne.

Conversely, pro basketball offers no such guarantees. Its coaches cling to their jobs by their fingernails, their careers frequently jeopardized by nothing more harmful than a five-game losing streak.

If Pitino has turned over a new leaf, wherever he eventually lands -- and he said this week he may not make that decision until at least March -- he and his next employer will talk wistfully on subjects such as longevity, tenure and seeing a project through to its completion.

Should he choose the Rebels, or UCLA, or a return to Kentucky, there will be hints if not assurances that he will be there for the long run.

But the asterisk that will be attached will be a reminder that he has never stayed long enough anywhere to really call it home.