INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Louisville coach Rick Pitino could be standing on the opposite sideline for Sunday's game -- if not for a change of heart 16 years ago.
The two-time national champion acknowledged that he briefly accepted the Michigan job one morning in 2001 before a conversation with his wife prompted him to call back university officials and turn down the job.
"She said I was making a decision based on the wrong factors, and she was right, because I never -- I'd never been on the campus before. I didn't know the athletic director, and I was taking a job blind to it all," he said. "But I thought it was a great job, great university, academically as well as athletically. Just wasn't the right fit for me."
Editor's note: Michigan hired Tommy Amaker as its head coach in 2001.
