If Indiana’s only criteria for filling their soon to be open head coaching role was who would be most likely to have the Hoosiers playing their best basketball by November, Rick Pitino would probably be the first call.
In his second season at St. John’s, Pitino has the Red Storm off to a 23-4 start, including a 14-2 mark in the Big East. He has a career .711 winning percentage and 754 victories as a college coach.
While he has been suggested as a good candidate for Indiana by some, Pitino seems like an unlikely target for IU AD Scott Dolson. Although he is widely considered one of the best coaches in college basketball, Pitino is 72 years old, and he led a scandalous tenure at Louisville that resulted in his 2013 national title being vacated by the NCAA.
Friday on the “Pardon My Take” podcast, Pitino said he hasn’t been contacted by Indiana, and wasn’t interested in promoting himself for the job.
“No. No one (from Indiana has contacted me),” said Pitino. “I would never hire myself for that job…I belong at St. John’s.”
But Pitino didn’t stop short of injecting his opinion into the IU hiring process.
He said Dolson’s search should start and stop with one person.
“Can I give you my pick? Ok. So, I’m going to have some people upset with me,” Pitino said.
“If I was the AD at Indiana — Am I friendly with this person? Yes I am. Do I have a lot of respect for this person? Yes I do. — I would immediately, not even interview anybody else, and hire one of the premier coaches in all of college basketball, and that’s Chris Beard from Ole Miss.
“I wouldn’t even think about another person. He’s perfect for that job. He’s a tough, hard-nosed … the years I was sitting out I got friendly with him because he asked me — he didn’t know me, I didn’t know him — to come out to speak to his team. He was at Texas Tech. And I went out and spoke, but I watched two days of practice and I always judge a coach by his practices, and I have to tell you those were some of the best practices and meetings with his team that I’ve ever witnessed.
“So I am a gigantic fan of Chris Beard and I think he would kill it at Indiana. He’d have them in the Top 5-7 every single year. Remember he brought Texas Tech to the championship game and could’ve won it if that young man from Virginia didn’t hit that corner shot, the great shot that he did hit. So he’s a superstar, Top 3 coach in my estimation.”
Beard coached under Bob Knight for several years and thus has long been thought to be a logical candidate for the IU job.
But like Pitino, Beard has incidents in his past that cast serious doubt on whether Indiana would hire him.
Beard was arrested in 2022 in connection with an alleged domestic violence incident. The case was dropped by the local district attorney.
Ole Miss hired Beard in 2023.
For complete coverage of IU basketball’s 2025 coaching search, GO HERE.
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