LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Once upon a time, Rick Pitino had a challenging decision to make:
Follow Brian Ellerbe and become the head men's basketball coach at Michigan or ...
Follow Denny Crum and become the coach at Louisville.
The Wolverines had just finished a 10-18 season with nine losses in their last 10 games. But Michigan had Nike money and a powerful cultural connection to the Fab Five. They own a seat in the Big Ten.
Louisville checked out with a 12-19 record, losing to UAB in Freedom Hall in their only Conference USA Tournament game. But the Cards had their own cultural chops with the Doctors of Dunk and went to four Final Fours while winning a pair of national titles from 1980-86.
Decisions, decisions.
What are you going to do, Coach?
"I actually took the Michigan job that morning, and my wife did not want to go for a variety of reasons," Pitino said in an interview with Mark Snyder of the Detroit Free Press in 2017.
"She said I was making a decision based on the wrong factors, and she was right, because I never — I've never been on the campus before. I didn't know the athletic director and I was taking a job blind to it all. But I thought it was a great job, great university, academically as well as athletically. Just wasn't the right fit for me."
Fast forward 23 years. Guess which are the top two jobs available in college basketball?
Louisville, which is moving on from Kenny Payne, and Michigan, which fired program icon Juwan Howard after five season.
After Ohio State decided to promote interim coach Jake Diebler last weekend, U of L and Michigan sat atop the list of the most desirable open job.
They're the Big Two. The others are the Little Five, that I would rank like this:
- Washington
- Oklahoma State
- Vanderbilt
- West Virginia
- Stanford
There is some overlap in the Hot Board for the U of L and Michigan job: Dusty May of Florida Atlantic and Jerome Tang of Kansas State have been mentioned at both places.
At Louisville, there is more buzz about Scott Drew of Baylor as well as Mick Cronin of UCLA. The other top names on the list at Michigan appear to be Niko Medved of Colorado State and Darian DeVries of Drake.
Louisville or Michigan? You make the call.
Louisville
Coaching Trail: Denny Crum and Rick Pitino, two Hall of Famers, were the only coaches to hold the job from 1971-2017. Stability reigned and then disappeared.
Pitino was fired before the start of the 2017-18 season. Including interims, the program has burned through four coaches over the last seven seasons.
2023-24 Record: 8-24, 3-17, lost the first round of the ACC Tournament
Record Last 5 Seasons: 62-85, .421
Record Last 10 Seasons: 179-139, .563
NCAA Tournament Record Since 2018: 0-1
NCAA Tournament Record Since 2013: 12-4
Final Fours: 10 (including the vacated 2013 appearance)
National Titles: Three (1980, 1986 and the vacated 2013 title)
Arena size: KFC Yum! Center seats 22,090, second-largest in Division I
Average Attendance this season: 11,504, 29th nationally
Attendance Gold Standard: Louisville averaged 21,571 fans when the Cards annually ranked third in attendance behind Syracuse and Kentucky. U of L still ranked third in 2017 and was sixth at 16,883 in 2018.
The Cards ranked in the top 10 nationally attendance for 38 consecutive seasons, a streak that ended in 2021, when COVID-19 resulted in empty arenas across the nation.
Fab Five: Wes Unseld, Darrell Griffith, Pervis Ellison, Russ Smith and Donovan Mitchell
2024 NBA Glitter: Mitchell, Cavaliers; Terry Rozier, Heat; Jordan Nwora, Raptors; Damion Lee, Suns; Montrezl Harrell, injured free agent.
Calling Card: Basketball matters. It matters in March. It matters in July. It matters in September. It matters in December. This is an obsessed fan base looking for somebody to love. The expectations might be unrealistic at times, but that's (usually) better than the vibe you'll find at schools where the fan base checks in for three months or less.
The history of ACC basketball is an easy sell. The competition is fierce. The Kentucky game ranks with any rivalry game in the nation. The arena is NBA-level. The practice facility excellent.
You're the biggest game in town and, if you win, you're the biggest name in town.
Flashing Light: The post-Pitino Era has been rugged. Chris Mack won big at Xavier but did not win big or resonate with fans here.
ACC basketball has slipped in recent years. The league is also distributing about $30 million less per school than the Big Ten or SEC, creating persistent questions about its future. The Cards' NIL game is not at the top of the scale, but people are working on fixing that.
Michigan
Coaching Trail: Steve Fisher and John Beilein took the Wolverines to multiple Final Fours with Fisher winning the 1989 NCAA title in Seattle.
But the coaches who followed Fisher and Beilein struggled mightily. Ellerbe barely won 50% of his games in the four seasons after he followed Fisher. Tommy Amaker failed to make the NCAA Tournament in six seasons. Juwan Howard won 20 games once in five seasons, failing to make the last two NCAA Tournaments.
2023-24 Record: 8-24, 3-17, lost first round Big Ten Tournament
Record Last 5 Seasons: 87-72, .453
Record Last 10 Seasons: 215-128, .627
NCAA Tournament Record Since 2018: 12-4, two Sweet Sixteens, one Elite Eight and one national runner-up
NCAA Tournament Record Since 2013: 22-8, two national runner-ups; two Elite Eights and three Sweet Sixteens
Final Fours: Eight (with two vacated)
National Titles: One in 1989
Arena size: Crisler Center (12,707) ranks 47th-largest in Division I
Average Attendance this season: 11,496, No. 30 nationally, one spot behind Louisville
Attendance Trend: In 2013, when Beilein led Michigan to the national championship game, the Wolverines averaged 12,138, 28th in the nation. The Crisler Center opened in 1967 and has been downsized by nearly 1,000 seats through the years.
Fab Five: Cazzie Russell, Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Glen Rice, Jalen Rose.
2024 NBA Glitter: Franz Wagner, Magic: Jordan Poole, Wizards; Caris LeVert, Cavaliers; Tim Hardaway Jr., Mavericks; Duncan Robinson, Heat.
Calling Card: Football just won the national title and sucks most of the oxygen from the room. The pressure to win will rarely match the need to win at Louisville. It's been more than three decades since the Fab Five shifted the culture of college basketball even though they didn't even win a conference title.
With their Air Jordan connection, the Wolverines still resonate. And over the last 10 tournaments, Michigan has been terrific in March. The local high school recruiting base is also stronger as the Wolverines have been successful drawing players in-state as well as from northern Ohio and Chicago. The transfer portal has eliminated some of that advantage.
Flashing Light: As long as Tom Izzo keeps scrapping in East Lansing, Michigan State will go toe-to-toe with you for players and attention. The transfer portal might not be as easy to work. The Wolverines had a commitment from North Carolina guard Caleb Love last spring but an academic issue reportedly led to Love landing at Arizona.
Big Ten money is terrific but opponents recruit against Big Ten schools because of its bruising "tackle basketball." They also note the Big Ten has not won a national title since 2020.
Decision
Most reasonable coaches would make the call Pitino made: Louisville is the better job.
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