Rece Davis endorses Rick Pitino as Power Five coaching candidate

As a few high-profile northeastern college hoops powers (ahem, Saint John’s and Georgetown) continue to suffer as programs, one elder statesman’s name has been floated around as a potential replacement should those respective schools move on from their coaches. That man? Rick Pitino. On the latest episode of their ESPN podcast, college sports insider Pete Thamel and College GameDay host Rece Davis discussed whether Pitino would make sense at those schools or other programs like them.

So check out below the back-and-forth that the two college basketball insiders had regarding Pitino’s stature as a coach and whether he makes sense for a power program given his age and back ground:

Pete Thamel and Rece Davis assess Rick Pitino’s viability as a power-conference coach

Thamel: “Rick Pitino, he’s coaching at Iona, they’re first place in the MAAC, and Rick Pitino can really coach basketball. This is not a news flash. Where can Rick Pitino go coach next year? And is that on the table for a blue blood/power-six program to bring 70-year-old Rick Pitino back?”

Davis: “You would know whether it’s on the table better than I, based on your connections through the agent world and the search firm world. I can say this. If any schools in the New York area, or in the DC area, were going to make a change — you know, I don’t want to get on here and advocate for someone getting fired. Although I don’t know why not, people do it. Anyway…”

Thamel: “I can. Patrick Ewing should definitely be fired! There’s no grey area there. He’s been terrible.”

Davis: “If there were going to be changes there, you bet your bottom dollar I’d hire that dude. Because right now, even at 70, if you said…one game, equal talent, money on the table, winner take all, choose your coach…that’s my guy. I would take Rick Pitino. And because of that, I mean, if he is hirable — and there are things in the background that you would have to square and you would have to become comfortable with, but maybe at this stage of his life, that would be a little bit easier to do — I’d hire him in a heartbeat. I would.”

Thamel: “I think that basketball-wise, acumen-wise, he still individually works out all his players himself. Energy-wise, there’s a lot of good there. But yes, there would be a couple days of tough publicity if you hired Rick Pitino. I don’t think athletic directors would hesitate. But I do think some university because of some of the controversies that he has put on himself really. As a coach, I don’t think there’s a better once since I’ve covered college basketball.”

Davis: “Rick’s not a long-term solution. These programs probably (don’t) need that. They need to get fixed and I don’t know that there’s a greater fixer in the history of the modern college game than Rick Pitino’s been.”