NCAA WOULD HAVE CAST WARY EYE ON PITINO AT UNLV

as part of its punishment — a punishment, of course, that will set the program back years, if not longer.

Would you take the championships, wins and memories if they were vacated? No new championship banners at the Thomas & Mack Center or lines in record books, but you could keep the shirt you purchased documenting the tainted title.

Let’s be honest: Many would take the wins and deal later with the punishments.

But now the bigger question — could Pitino have won here? Could he have recruited the high-end players needed to compete on a national stage when there wasn’t much at the time to offer at UNLV. The Mountain West Conference was still getting established and its games weren’t readily available on television. We all remember the Mtn, right?

More important, could Pitino run a program without being caught for breaking the rules? After all, we lead the nation in readily available escorts.

Pitino’s first top-5 recruiting class would have been met with claims of breaking the rules, opening the door for unwanted eyes from the NCA A on the program.

And the NCAA has always gone out of its way to police UNLV basketball, especially in 2001 after coach Bill Bayno’s fallout ignited by infractions.

It didn’t take this week’s news to cement claims that Pitino operated with low moral standards. It didn’t take this week’s news for Las Vegans to realize UNLV was better off without him as the Rebels’ coach.

Pitino would have won here — he’s won at nearly every college stop in his career. While it’s fun to think what could have been, that’s not a cue to be unrealistic.

Pitino was never coming to UNLV. And even if he did, there was no guarantee he would have led the Rebels to a Final Four. Those days, regardless of who is coaching, could be long gone. ray.brewer@lasvegassun.com / 702-990-2662 / @raybrewer21