Okay, I'll admit it - the 1996 Chicago Bulls are the greatest basketball team of all time.

After watching them go 72-10 in the regular season and 15-3 in the postseason, I'm ready to say that. Okay, so Seattle beat them twice in the Finals, but the Sonics, winners of 64 games of their own, were no slouch.

Unfortunately, Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf may be too tight with his wallet to want to win another title. Head coach Phil Jackson is up for a new contract as are Michael Jordan and Dennis Rodman. Word is, Jordan could command up to $18 million a year. Rodman, who was the real MVP of that series, deserves a chance to come back and play for the only two guys that seem to be able to focus him on the task at hand: rebounds, rebounds and more rebounds.

It's Phil Jackson who is in the stickiest situation of them all. One could argue that I could coach a team made up of Jordan, Rodman and Scottie Pippen. Just role out the ball and let them play. Truth is Jackson is the only coach who can meld the three biggest egos on the planet into the most dominating force in basketball.

Jackson also gets to renegotiate his contract knowing that the New Jersey Nets paid UMass coach John Calipari $3 million a year for five years to try and salvage that sad franchise. So, if one team is willing to give a guy with no professional experience $3 million, what is a team supposed to pay a guy whose team has earned four titles in the last six years?

Get out your checkbook Jerry.

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And speaking of guys whose teams have won four national championships in the last six years, look at Arizona softball coach Mike Candrea. People are saying he could be a candidate to replace retiring baseball coach Jerry Kindall. You have got to be kidding. In the manual on how to run a successful athletic department, nowhere will athletic director Jim Livengood read, "Kill one of your programs by hiring its coach to lead another sport."

Let's put it in terms everybody in Tucson will understand: If women's basketball coach Joan Bonvicini were to retire, would you make men's head Lute Olson the coach?

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In terms of who should get the job, while the hearts of everyone invovled might be saying Jerry Stitt, I think it would be wise for associate athletic director Kathleen "Rocky" LaRose and her committee to search elsewhere for its coach and let Stitt concentrate on his job as one of the top hitting coaches in the game.

Believe me, Stitt is an excellent coach. The Wildcats have always been a good hitting squad. What Arizona needs is a coach with his finger on defense and pitching - an area where the Wildcats are in need of a lot of help. Perhaps a coach from a midwest or southern school who has ties to the high schools that grow big, overpowering pitchers with more abundance than they do corn and tobacco.

Craig Degel is a journalism junior and a sports reporter for the Arizona Summer Wildcat.