Dick Vitale has lived a wonderful basketball life, one he will gladly tell you about if you are prepared to set aside a good chunk of the day. He is a broadcasting icon who has spent the past 41 years collecting a paycheck to do something he would do for free, and even now as an octogenarian, sees no reason to step away from the microphone.

But part of him will always be the young assistant coach at Rutgers with thick-rimmed glasses and a reputation as an ace recruiter. He didn’t stay in New Brunswick long, but those two years -- and the unhappy exit that followed -- shaped the East Rutherford native. They left him with one of the great “what ifs” of that hoops life.

Vitale was a brash 33-year-old assistant who believed, in 1973, that he was the right man for the job when head coach Dick Lloyd stepped down. He pleaded for the job, even offering to work for his $11,000 assistant’s salary. Rutgers instead hired Tom Young, who led the players that Vitale had helped recruit to the 1976 Final Four. Vitale, meanwhile, departed for the University of Detroit with regrets that gnaw at him all these years later.

“I really feel, had they given me that opportunity, you’d be talking to me right now, ‘Dick, are you going to keep on coaching?’” Vitale told NJ Advance Media this week. "Because I really feel like I could have turned that program into a power. I really felt that way."

He makes it clear again: He isn’t disappointed with the way that things turned out. He loves his life. He still marvels that he can’t walk across his Las Vegas hotel lobby before broadcasting a West Coast Conference Tournament this week game without fans stopping him for autographs and selfies again, and again, and again.

He went from success at Detroit, to failure with the NBA’s Pistons, to fame beyond the reach of almost coaching gig at ESPN. He never had to deal with the gut-wrenching losses that, he believes, could have killed him before his 50th birthday.

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Still, no matter where the basketball journey took him, Vitale never stopped wondering if he would have been the man to shape Rutgers into a college basketball powerhouse -- and now, finally, thinks they may have found the man who will do it.

“I could never understand it, I’m telling you,” Vitale said, his voice rising on the phone. “I could never buy the fact that Rutgers shouldn’t be a legitimate threat make the NCAA Tournament. There’s no reason. I’m not saying top 10. I’m saying an NCAA Tournament team.

“You’ve got to believe what you’re selling,” he said. “When I was at Rutgers, I believed in my heart that it was a great place for a (recruit). It’s a job for a salesman, and I believe Steve (Pikiell) is proving that he can be that guy now.”

This week, with Rutgers on the verge of its first NCAA Tournament since 1991, seemed like a good time to check in with the legendary New Jersey broadcaster. It felt like a good time, actually, to check in with anyone who has an association with a program that has watched nearly 300 different Division 1 programs -- who knew there were that many? -- make the field since the Scarlet Knights last saw their names pop up in the bracket.

Vitale has a unique perspective. He hasn’t been to Piscataway in such a long time, he said he “can’t even remember that far back.”* Still, few people have had a better view of college basketball’s ebbs and flows as the man who began his remarkable basketball journey as an elementary school coach in Garfield in 1958.

* This is a free suggestion for Rutgers’ marketing folks: Schedule a “Dick Vitale Night” early next season at the RAC. Give out bobbleheads. Honor him at halftime. He isn’t just someone who spent a couple years as an assistant here. He is a New Jersey Hall of Famer with deep ties to the local basketball community. Make it happen.

He believes Rutgers’ biggest obstacle to success has been itself. He looks at the why-not-us attitude from football coach Greg Schiano and wonders why that approach has never taken hold in the entire athletic department.

In his words:

“When I came there, I thought the problem was very simple,” Vitale said. "There’s always been a mentality of mediocrity at Rutgers. They never felt like they could compete with the big guys. I remember coming in there and saying, ‘Look, I didn’t give up a pretty good job (at East Rutherford High) to come here to be chasing guys who want to beat low-level Division 1 teams.'

"You can’t tell me that I can’t find two big-time players a year. That’s eight players! You mean to tell me I can’t find eight big-time players? And I really set myself on an intense and emotional work-ethic in chasing the best. Guys like Phil Sellers, Mike Dabney. And we got ‘em. Look at what happened with those kids.

"It’s great academically, you’re in a great location, you’ve got Madison Square Garden to sell. It used to get me so annoyed when I said I was going to go after a kid and different people said, ‘Dick, we’re Rutgers. We’re Rutgers.’ And that’s the problem!

“When you think you’re mediocre, you’re going to be mediocre. When you think you’re special, you’ll be special. That’s what I love about Greg Schiano. He believes they’re going to be special. You can feel it with his words, you can feel it with his emotion and his passion, and you’ve got to do that. I think Steve is doing a good job with that as well.”

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Vitale finishes his Rutgers testimonial with a warning: One successful year doesn’t guarantee anything with this resurgence. The goal needs to be bigger than just making the tournament. Once, apathy was an enemy. Now, complacency takes it place.

“Oh I think they’re in,” Vitale said when asked about this team’s tournament status. "I would be shocked if they’re out, shocked beyond belief. I think I’ve got a better chance of growing hair than them not getting into this tournament.

“But you can’t stop there. You’ve got to get to the point where you lock up kids in your state. You’ve got to lock up the best of the best to be the best. You can’t let them get away.”

The legendary broadcaster who once thought he would be the man to build Rutgers into a college basketball power still knows what it’ll take to get there. All these years later, part of him is still that young assistant pleading for his big break.

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Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevePoliti. Find NJ.com on Facebook.