Pitino to UNLV speculation just wild enough to believe

The lead had climbed to 21 with about seven minutes remaining in the first half against Southern Utah, I mean South Dakota, I mean Air Force, I mean one of the worst Air Force sides in recent memory, and the energy in the Thomas & Mack Center on Saturday night continued to rise as it has few times this UNLV basketball season.

Maybe it was the lobs for dunks or all those 3-pointers falling for the Rebels, who would eventually rout the Falcons 100-64 and win their second straight game under interim coach Todd Simon.

Or maybe most of an announced crowd of 13,198 had heard about the Rick Pitino story.

When you fire a coach in the most uncommon of times as UNLV did Dave Rice midway through his fifth season last Sunday, you're going to as a program spend the next few months reading and hearing about those names, both prominent and unknown and all in between, that might emerge as serious candidates for the position.

Pitino isn't just a name.

His is a Hall of Fame one.

The insinuation that he would leave a Top 25 program in Louisville and all the zeros on future paychecks owed him would normally be met with loud cackles from here to the Bluegrass State, a preposterous idea on its face because of what Pitino makes and the conference in which his program competes and the massive disparity that are the Rebels and Cardinals today.

Dayton and Xavier are much better programs than UNLV right now.

Louisville is another stratosphere.

But hidden within the immediate assumption that Pitino, much like when he turned down the UNLV job in 2001, wouldn't ever consider making such a jump are a few details that might suggest it's not totally absurd.

Just the usual amount of absurd.

Matt Youmans is a terrific reporter who has impeccable sources for the Review-Journal, so when he broke the news Saturday of Pitino being interested in the job, some validity came with it. I'm convinced Pitino or a person in his inner circle at least suggested to someone at UNLV or one of its boosters that the coach would be willing to listen.

That still leaves the chance of it happening further apart than the recent NCAA Tournament success of the Cardinals when compared to the Rebels, but consider: Pitino is 63, and at least one person close to him said Saturday night from Louisville that they couldn't imagine him wanting to go through another year like the last, one defined by allegations that a former assistant coach allegedly paid strippers to attend parties and have sex with players and recruits from 2010 to 2014.

Pitino in October said he would never resign over the accusations made in the book "Breaking Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen," penned by Katina Powell, one of the alleged escorts. But the scandal has definitely worn on him. That much is obvious.

It's also fairly clear, at least in these early stages and from calls made by agents of coaches to athletic department officials, that UNLV will seek first the sort of big-name candidates that would make national news at a news conference and, in its mind, hopefully turn such a reputation into wins.

Doesn't always work out like that, by the way.

Mike Brown as a former Lakers and Cavaliers coach is a big name.

Nice guy, can't coach.

Pitino is among the elite of elite names.

He's an all-time great coach.

Whether it's true he would be interested in UNLV because he could potentially bring son Richard onto the coaching staff and negotiate him as head-coach-in-waiting (which would really have to be explained, if true, as to why Richard would immediately deserve such a placement) or that Pitino merely desires an escape to another zip code and away from the sort of negative publicity that has found him lately, none of it means anything unless those Rebel boosters so intent on making a splash in the hiring process finally apply ink to their checks.

This is pure fantasy unless people are finally willing to put their money where their mouths are when it comes to UNLV's basketball coach.

Pitino signed a 10-year contract extension last summer worth more than $50 million.

Fifty. Million.

What the Rebels could offer that might entice Pitino to come for less than his average salary of more than $4 million is unknown, which makes the entire idea a definite wait-and-see proposition.

Rick Pitino turned down UNLV 15 years ago for whatever reason you want to believe — he and wife Joanne wanted to keep their five children living reasonably close to each other, the fact that UNLV athletic department officials left Joanne sitting alone at McCarran International Airport for several hours after being dropped off, reports he was using the UNLV offer as leverage to increase his market value — but this is a different time and these are different circumstances.

It doesn't for a second mean the possibility of him coming has any legs, but if even a hint of this is true, UNLV has a responsibility to pursue such an option until it is soundly rejected and both sides have moved on.

It's Rick Pitino, after all.

Hall of Famer. Elite coach.

Really, really, really big name.

— Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be a heard on "Seat and Ed" on Fox Sports 1340 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. On Twitter: @edgraney.