Exit, stage wrong

 This happened almost 30 years ago now, and I have told the story before. But this morning seems the perfect time to tell it again.

The year was 1996 and Rick Pitino had just won the NCAA title with a powerhouse Kentucky squad, and now he was traveling around the country hawking his latest book. One night he came to a bookstore here in the Fort, and I hauled my intrepid little reporter's hiney out there to chat with him.

We talked for a bit about his book and UK's relentless March march, and then, because I'd been hearing some pretty loud rumors that Pitino was about to bolt Lexington for the Boston Celtics, I asked him if there was any truth to it.

Pitino looked me square in the eye and lied through his teeth. Which is quite the anatomical trick if you think about it.

"Why would I want to leave Kentucky?" he asked, and then went on and on about how it was the greatest basketball environment in the world in the greatest basketball place in the world.

The very next day the news broke that Pitino was taking the Celtics job.

I thought about that when I saw the clip from Texas A&M baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle's postgame presser after the Aggies lost the College World Series to No. 1 Tennessee.

It seems a reporter chose that moment to ask him if he was going to stick around Aggieland, admittedly not the optimum time and place for such a question. And Schlossnagle let him know about it.

"I think it's pretty selfish of you to ask my that question, to be honest with you," he replied. "But I left my family to be the coach at Texas A&M. I took the job at Texas A&M to never take another job again. And that hasn't changed in my mind."

A day later, Texas announced Jim Schlossnagle as its new head baseball coach.

Now, if you want to cut the guy some slack, you could say that sometime later that evening -- maybe, I don't know, at 3 a.m. or something -- it did change in his mind. Maybe he thought, "You know, College Station is OK, but the Tex-Mex is better in Austin. Maybe I'll give the boys down there a call." 

But to believe that, you'd also have to believe he hadn't already been talking to Texas. And that's absurd.

Of course he had been. Of course the deal was likely already done. So, basically, like Pitino all those years ago, he looked everyone in the eye and lied through his teeth.

And, sure, I know what you're gonna say next: "What else did you expect him to do?" And you're right. He was caught between the proverbial rock and the hard place.

But he could have chosen the hard place. Instead he chose the rock.

He could have followed up his observation that the question was selfish by saying "...and I'm not answering it." That would have ramped up the speculation, but at least it wouldn't have been so blatantly, shamefully dishonest. At least it would have kept the Bullstuff Meter below the red line.

Instead, Schlossnagle -- like Pitino all those years ago -- chose to gild the bullstuff lily. Piled it higher than an elephant's eye, you might say.

Which seems like a lot of extra work to no good purpose. One man's opinion.