Louisville coach Rick Pitino reportedly has shown interest in the New Jersey Nets coaching position, sources told the New York Daily News.
As our friends over at the H-T have pointed out, if Pitino were to leave for the NBA it would almost certaintly impact the recruitment of five-star junior Marquis Teague.
Teague, the No. 2 recruit in the class of 2011, has long been linked to Louisville and Pitino -- though in the last several months no one really seems to know where his recruitment stands. Teague has been at a number of IU games in the last couple years. Kentucky, Ohio State, Cincinnati and Purdue are some of the other schools that have been in the mix.
But if Slick Rick were to leave Louisville, the table discussions (yes, pun intended) of the Pike High School star favoring the Cardinals would almost surely be through.
Pitino already has an impressive list of juniors verbally committed to UofL for 2011 -- two 4-star recruits and two 5-star prospects, according to Rivals.com. All four hail from Big Ten country -- including two Lawrence North (Indianapolis) stars, as a reader pointed out to me.
Five-star center and No. 10 overall recruit Michael Chandler and four-star power forward teammate Ryan Taylor obviously could be back on the market. Likely the same could be said for five-star Chicago star and recent commit Wayne Blackshear, as well as for four-star Cleveland center Zach Price (from Tom Pritchard's St. Ed High School).
It's pure speculation at this point, so there's no reason to belabor this rumor any further. But it's certainly worth discussing.
If you ask me, even if Pitino stays, I don't think he remains at Lousiville beyond the terms of his contract that will come up in 2013.
