At the end of December news broke that disgraced basketball coach Rick Pitino was getting back into coaching. He was finalizing a deal to become the head coach for the EuroLeague power Panathinkaikos of Greece.
Now it’s being reported that Pitino is the top target to replace Steve Alford, who was fired last week by UCLA last week. It looks like he’s got some powerful backing to take over the Bruins basketball program.
Via Forbes SportsMoney:
Rick Pitino is a top target of influential boosters to be the next head men’s basketball coach at UCLA, an industry source told Forbes SportsMoney.
Casey Wasserman, a billionaire UCLA alum who was influential in the hiring of Chip Kelly as UCLA’s new football coach, and John Branca, a graduate of the UCLA Law School and an entertainment lawyer who is the co-executor of Michael Jackson’s Estate, both want Pitino, the source said.
“They’re going after Pitino, that’s their No. 1 choice,” the source said.
“Casey Wasserman is the most powerful person at UCLA,” the source added. “He runs everything.”
What stripper and prostitution recruiting parties? Pitino definitely won’t need to use those to recruit kids to play at UCLA. He can just give them a tour of Los Angeles.
