According to ESPN's Jay Bilas, NC State has contacted none other than Denny Crum about its current head coaching vacancy, and the man who guided Louisville to two national championships "is listening."
Bilas tweeted the following late Thursday night:
From the surreal department: NC State is now in talks with Denny Crum. A source close to the former Louisville coach tells me "he is listening."
Crum was Louisville's head coach from 1971-2001 and guided the program to its only two national titles in 1980 and 1986. In 1994 he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He finished his career with an NCAA Tournament Record of 42-23. In his 30 years as a Division 1 head coach he had 21 20-win seasons, averaging 23 wins per year.
Crum hasn't coached anywhere since his resignation at U of L in 2001. He's remained in the city, regularly attends Cardinal home games, and hosts a morning radio show with former Kentucky head coach Joe B. Hall.
N.C State, a program which has also won a pair of national championships, fired Sidney Lowe after this past season and has since been spurned by multiple potential replacements. Even though the position has recently been described as "the worst great-paying job in America outside of President of the United States," it's hard to believe the Wolfpack brass would actually go all the way through with a move as bold(?) as this.
Even though he may be "listening" at the moment, I also find it hard to believe that Crum could possibly end up accepting this. First, he's 74-years-old and appears to be perfectly content with retirement life. Second, it's April Fool's Day and I've made every word of this post up.
I have a hard time believing the majority of you fell victim to this yet again, but for those of you poor, poor souls who did, you are now commanded to eat those new shrimp tacos from Taco Bell for lunch. And now I will, as always, throw this closing out there for those who saw the title and immediately skipped down to the last line.
Obviously, we'll have more on this whenever additional news comes out.