Rick Pitino weighs in on Indiana coaching search, names Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard as lead candidate

Rick Pitino appeared on an episode of Pardon My Take, Friday to discuss the Indiana coaching job and his resurgence of Saint John's basketball on the sports comedy podcast on Barstool Sports.

Rick Pitino said he hasn’t been contacted about the Indiana job, but if Pitino was Indiana’s athletic director, he would hire Ole Miss men's basketball coach Chris Beard.

At 72 years of age, Rick Pitino has St. John’s ranked No. 10 in the nation in only his second season as head coach. Pitino has put over 40 players in the NBA to go along with two national titles and seven Final Four appearances with Providence, Kentucky and Louisville. He also led mid-major Iona to the NCAA Tournament twice.

Coach Pitino seems like an unlikely target for Indiana Athletic Director Scott Dolson.  Although he is widely considered one of the best coaches in college basketball he will be 73 years old next season and has had scandal after scandal off the court, which led his 2013 national title being vacated by the NCAA at Louisville.

“I’m going to have some people upset at me,” Pitino said on the Pardon My Take podcast. “If I was the AD at Indiana, and ‘am I friendly with this person? Yes I am. Do I have a lot of respect for this person? Yes I do.’ But I would immediately and 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.”

The 52-year-old Beard worked for Bob Knight at Texas Tech, reached the national championship game at Texas Tech in 2019 and has won more than 70 percent of his games as a head coach. Beard and Ole Miss currently sit at 19-7 overall likely to appear in their second NCAA tournament in two seasons at Ole Miss.

Earlier this month, Indiana announced that Mike Woodson would step away at the end of the season.

Mike Woodson has a record of 78-51 (.605), including being 15-11 (6-9) this season. The Hoosiers are projected to miss the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season which is unacceptable for Indiana fans, donors and alum. College hoops are simply better when Indiana Hoosier basketball is at the top.