I'm not arguing he was a bum. There was a reason we hired him. I'm saying, he was not established HOF coach like Cal some think we're entitled to on the next hire. He was no Donovan or Stephens.
Pitino was a young coach who had one good year in college. He had a six seed team and went to the Final Four one year. Went to NBA and won one series in the playoffs in two seasons. People thought he had the goods. I did. Not because of years and years of success, but because of two.
But I wouldn't put his resume against Scott Drew. And i see people now who look at Scott Drew, who's done way more than that, and they want to poke holes. And that's probably our top realistic candidate. And the next group of candidates if he were to decline will have much less.
There's not a lot of established HOF coaches out there. The few that are, most likely have great gigs at good programs and are entrenched for life with contracts similar to Cal.
Scott Drew is a good example. He's 20 years into a program he has built. Today, Baylor can pay him whatever he wants, and spend resources on basketball. When Pitino was coming up, he and other top caliber coaches had to shoot for bigger more blue-blooded programs. Not only for money, resources, etc but like you said he kind of caught lightning in a bottle and most likely wasn't going to sniff deep runs at Providence anymore.
Now there's more parity in general. There's more exposure, media, etc for all. So, a young coach today can make a HOF career at a Providence, make good money, be seen on TV, recruit, and not have to worry about massive pressure.
Gonzaga is another good example. Mark Few has poo pooed many people, including us. He doesn't need the blue blood platform. He's 20 years in, his is program well known, he gets great talent, puts kids in the league, and lives a nice quite life way up in the pacific northwest out of the fray of big time P5/blue blood collegiate athletics.
Jay Wright, again similar story. Has been courted by everyone including us to which his response has been "nah i'm good"
I've always maintained Billy Donovan is the guy, but he falls into the above category of dudes who did it and no longer need what we have to offer.
Which is why everyone needs to be careful. Especially those who would actually make the decision to move on from Cal because the odds favor getting someone who isn't going to be able to do it.