GoLocalProv | Sports | NEW: President Dooley Kills Hiring of Pitino at URI
The University of Rhode Island Athletic Director Thorr Bjorn had come to a rough agreement in principle with Rick Pitino to succeed Dan Hurley as the Head Men’s Basketball Coach at the University late last week.
According to multiple sources, the deal would have paid the embattled Hall of Fame Coach Pitino $2 million a year. Pitino's salary at Rhode Island would have been less than Hurley's new contract at the University of Connecticut and less than a third of Pitino’s total package he had received at Louisville before his ouster.
But, when Bjorn took the offer to URI President David Dooley the hiring was shot down. According to multiple sources, Dooley balked due to Pitino’s ties to an FBI probe of the NCAA and other controversies.
There’s no chance that’s true.
Zero.
First, no athletic director at a reputable school is going to take Pitino’s call.
Second, if one was crazy enough to take the call, the school president would be consulted long before there was a ‘rough agreement.’
Third, Pitino would have had every media lackey he knows tweeting about it by now.