They were a restless, hyperactive few weeks in UCLA basketball circles after head coach Steve Alford was relieved of duties just days before Pac-12 conference play began. The Bruins, for their part, immediately snapped a four game losing streak and now sit 2-0 in conference after back-to-back drubbings of Bay Area rivals Stanford and Cal in Los Angeles under interim head coach Murray Bartow.
Predictably, rumors about who would replace Alford at one of the nation’s premier amateur basketball programs got up and whirling almost immediately news of Alford’s ouster began to spread. One name that stood out like a red light flashing luridly on a dark night was 66-year-old Rick Pitino’s.