John Clay’s Sidelines

So Louisville fans have their noses out of joint because John Calipari omitted Rick Pitino’s name during last Friday’s KISS concert, er, Big Blue Madness at Rupp Arena.

As Dana O’Neil reported for espn.com: “On Friday night, the introductory video included a montage of images, from black and white to color, from old legends to new, while Calipari’s speech invoked beloved late manager Bill Keightley and the great line of coaches — Adolph Rupp, Joe B. Hall and Tubby Smith, noticeably skipping over Eddie Sutton and Rick Pitino.”

But as the Courier-Journal’s Eric Crawford rightly points out on his blog, Calipari would no doubt have received a negative reaction (i.e. monstrous booing) had he mentioned the former coach. And as Eric also points out, Pitino has played his own game of revisionist history. Rick did it at UK, acting as if the program didn’t truly begin until he set foot on campus. He’s doing it at Louisville. As Eric points out, there are pix of Antoine Walker and Jamal Mashburn on the wall where U of L practices, not Rodney McCray or Pervis Ellison.

Jason Whitlock

This I heart about Jason Whitlock: The man never holds back.

In fact, the Kansas City Star/Fox Sports columnist so graphically gave readers his thoughts about the Rick Pitino scandal, and men in general, a couple of weeks ago I couldn’t bring myself to offer it a link. After all, impressionable children have been known to read this blog.

But now Jason is back, and while his latest take on Rick is hardly G-rated, it’s a different spin, even if Jason has his tongue firmly planted in his sizable cheek. Or maybe not. You decide.

An excerpt:

We, the media, don’t know what we’re talking about. Despite Pimpino opening his press conference declaring his intentions and the audience he would attempt to sway, we missed the utter brilliance of his performance.

“I’m a little upset,” Pitino began. “This is a day I went home to comfort my wife, who obviously, as you would imagine, the last seven months would be having a very difficult time, as her husband was blackmailed during the tournament and extorted for millions of dollars. From that point on, all she’s read is all these false allegations.”

Hello. Pitino is trying to save his marriage.

When his six-minute rant concluded, tears trickled down my cheeks, I rose from my seat and found myself clapping my hands and mouthing the words, “Play on, playa. Play on” and wanting to listen to Johnnie Taylor’s classic “Cheaper To Keep Her.”

A friend in Louisville theorized to me Wednesday that Joanne Pitino had probably just returned home from her daily hair appointment, flipped on her favorite soap opera only to see police video of Karen Sypher saying awful things about her husband. My friend theorized that Joanne quickly got Rick on the phone, and, voila, a press conference commenced.

Click here for the full transcript.

Deadspin has a good take on Rick Pitino’s bizarre and ill-conceived press conference today in which the Louisville basketball coach — you know, the one who admitted to adultery and paying $3,000 for health insurance (wink, wink) for the woman — scolded the media for covering the story.

Apparently, we are only to report what Rick says, because that’s the only thing that’s true.

Deadspin excerpt:

Pitino lashed out at the media for interrupting Ted Kennedy Day to report “lies” about him. Everything is a lie except for the stuff that Rick Pitino said, so why don’t you print that in your pinko commie rags?

Here’s my column on the petulant Pitino.

You watch the press conference here.

Update: New York Daily News sent a reporter to Louisville for this lengthy Sunday story on Pitino.

From the in-box.

William wrote:

I generally enjoy reading your articles, but I must take you to task about your recent one regarding Rick Pitino.

In your article you state:

“So, despite the morals clause in his contract, Pitino shouldn’t be pink-slipped just because he had sex with a stranger at Porcini. Nor should he be fired for funding an abortion. You can argue the morality of those acts, you can’t argue the legality.”

I have a problem with this for 3 reasons. First, you seem to equate legality with morality, which is wrong because while not necessarily mutually exclusive, each is a separate entity.

Second, you acknowledge the morals clause in Mr. Pitino’s contract, yet quickly dismiss his conduct as insufficient to justify his termination. This calls into question if you consider any act immoral enough to justify employment termination of a famous coach.

Third, and this is perhaps the crux of my problem with your stance, Rick Pitino’s sexual liaison and reported payment for an abortion are immoral acts by his own standards. If Rick, a staunch Roman Catholic, considers his own actions immoral, as he has admitted, how then can you say that you can “argue the morality of those actions”. In a word, you can’t because he doesn’t.

Daniel wrote:

Pitino’s motivational hogwash, loud personality, and public invocation of his religion while always looking out for Number One (I am a Catholic), just make him look the ultimate hypocrite. The way he used his celebrity muscle against Sypher through the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, the Louisville P.D. and the University still did not make her go away, and now her credibility is on a par with his. Just shows how sleazy big time basketball coaches have become at places like Louisville, UK, the Big East etc. The longer U of L holds onto him, the more foolish the school looks. Before long they will have the dreadful “win at all costs” reputation your alma mater has had since 1951. The whole Pitino coaching tree of himself, Calipari, Donovan et al, has to be nervous about the biggest oak in their forest tumbling soon.

Continue reading ‘E-mailbag: Opinions on the Rick Pitino saga’

Even more Rick Pitino links:

• Rebecca Rosenberg of the New York Post travels to Louisville and talks to Jacqueline Pitino who says that, as Post puts it, “vixen can’t ruin Pitino’s marriage.”
• Laurnie Caproni of the Maysville Ledger-Independent writes an open letter to Pitino.
• Mark Wiedmer of the Chattanooga Times Free Press compares Vandy’s Kevin Stallings’ behavior to that of Pitino’s.
• Andew Wolfson of the Courier-Journal talks to Pitino’s lawyer, who says that coach did not force Karen Sypher to have an abortion.
• Rick Bozich of the Courier-Journal writes that the Pitino story is far from over.
• Nathaniel Bryan of the Elizaethtown News-Enterprise talks to Scott Padgett about Pitino’s situation.

Continue reading ‘Even more Rick Pitino and his “vixen” links’

Update: Click the jump for video of ESPN’s Pat Forde and Skip Bayless debating the Pitino apology.

Did Rick Pitino’s well-timed apology on Thursday ring hollow?

Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News thinks so, and I am inclined to degree agree. Before he took to the cameras at 6:30, just at the start of the national TV news, I had told my wife that if the Louisville coach was smart he would throw himself on the mercy of the fan-base, admit his mistake, apologize profusely to the university and his fans, and vow to work harder to make Louisville a winner.

And while Pitino’s apology wasn’t as ridiculous or head-scratching as the bizarro one delieved by South Carolina Governor Mark “Appalachian Trail” Sanford, Rick still couldn’t quite pull an “I’m sorry” off with enough sincerity to make you feel truly sorry for him.

For one thing, he had to bring up 9/11, and in such a convulted and confusing way as to make you wonder if he was asking for sympathy, trying to play off his loss of his best friend and brother-in-law, Billy Minardi, in that attack, or if somehow he was blaming the city of Louisville for not helping him get through it.

What was that all about?

He also had to bring up the “great” season Louisville had last year, making it to the Elite Eight, as if to make sure and remind the fans that, “Hey, I am a good coach, you know.”

We know. That’s not the point.

Continue reading ‘Did Rick Pitino’s apology ring hollow?’

More links dealing with the Rick Pitino sex scandal:

MUST-READ: Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports writes, “Who wants Pitino? Not the NBA.”

• NEW: Writing for NBC Bay Area, Josh Alper admonishes Pitino for using 9/11 as crutch.
• NEW: Paul Daugherty of the Cincinnati Enquirer says stop the moralizing.
• NEW: Gregg Doyel of CBS Sportsline writes that Pitino doesn’t deserve hate or firing squad.
• NEW: Jeff Pearlman of SI.com writes that Pitino case proves that winning comes before morality for coaches.
• Dick Weiss of the New York Daily News, who once wrote a book with Pitino, writes that the coach may never recover from scandal.
• Ray Melick of the Birmingham News writes that Louisville defines itself by choosing to accept Rick Pitino’s apology.
• Tom Arenberg of the Birmingham News writes that Pitino’s actions has done irreparable harm.
• Rick Bozich of the Courier-Journal writes that Pitino’s apology was a necessary first big step.
• The C-J’s editorial on Pitino’s admission.
• Joe Biddle of the Tennessean writes that Louisville did not even give Pitino a slap on the wrist.
• The Baltimore Sun has a cross-section of opinion on the Pitino scandal.
• Yael T. Abouhalkah of the Kansas City Star calls it “Pitino’s pitiful affair.”
• Christine Brennan of USA Today wonders how Pitino can continue as coach.
• Will Graves of the AP writes that the Pitino damage will be hard to repair.

Update: Fox Sports’ Jeff Goodman writes that Pitino scandal is bound to affect recruiting.

Here’s my column saying that the scandal will affect Rick Pitino’s ability to his job.

But my friend Mike DeCourcy doesn’t quite agree. The Sporting News’ college basketball expert thinks Pitino will have some difficulty, but will still be able to pull in top-notch recruits.

Excerpt:

Second, there is bound to be some player out there - or, more likely, a family member of a player - who views this development as a reason to eliminate Louisville from consideration. Even if it’s only one player - and there’ll never be a way to tally them - losing somebody the program might otherwise have landed would be a negative consequence.

Generally, the impact will not be debilitating. Pitino’s contacts, particularly in New York and Seattle, are firmly established. The Cardinals will still land players capable of competing in the Big East.

Meanwhile, over at CBS Sportsline, Garry Parrish says coaches have been fired for less.

Continue reading ‘DeCourcy says Pitino won’t be badly hurt by scandal’

Karen Sypher (AP photo)

Wondering the national average-Joe reaction to the Rick Pitino sex scandal?

I perused Twitter this morning and discovered some pretty entertaining and creating “tweets” about the story:

• missingfingers: I neglect to watch Sports Center one night and miss Youk getting hit by a pitch and Pitino paying 3 grand to get rid of his problem. Sigh.

• Russ_Kessler: @johnclayiv Your right. However, I am trying to talk my wife into letting me take her to Porcini’s for her birthday.

• @sportsguy33: But seriously… Couldn’t this Pitino thing have happened before ESPN released its twitter policy??? I am so bitter.

• cattleprod: It’s disappointing that the Courier-Journal has disabled comments on their Rick Pitino Trailer Trash story. Was SO looking forward to it all

• @sportspickle: Rival Coaches Telling Recruits That Rick Pitino Might Abort Them

• BostonFaninDC: Wish we could abort Pitino’s tenure with the Celtics

• CyberHodge: Porcini’s Restaurant must serve some seriously great oysters.

Continue reading ‘Best of Twitter on Rick Pitino’