Kentucky sports and beyond.
When it comes to college basketball on television, it’s former Kentucky coach night. At 7 p.m., you can tune in and find out if Rick Pitino has enough healthy bodies to put on the floor for Louisville to play Villanova. At 8:30, watch Tubby Smith and his Minnesota Gophers attempt to survive the Izzone. Then at 9 p.m., watch Billy Gillispie continue his search for his first Big 12 win at Texas Tech.
If ESPN’s 30 for 30 would do an Eddie Sutton documentary, the night would be set.
As you may have heard, at his press conference today, Louisville coach Rick Pitino took issue with a Courier-Journal story that quoted former U of L coach Denny Crum and former U of L player Preston Knowles saying that the coach has a reputation for hard practices.
By the way, it is sort of a rant, but Pitino did not yell at C.L. Brown, the Courier-Journal reporter.
Click the continue line to listen to the audio.
Continue reading ‘Rick Pitino reacts to story about his hard practices’
(AP photo)
It’s an important game for Louisville tonight in Rhode Island, and not just because Rick Pitino will be honored for the 25th anniversary of his 1987 Final Four team at Providence.
The Cards are slumping. They’ve lost three of their last four — lost to Georgetown at home; lost at Kentucky; won at St. John’s; lost at home to Notre Dame — to fall to 13-3 overall and 1-2 in the Big East. Both those Big East losses came at home, including that 67-65 double-overtime loss to the Irish last Saturday.
Continue reading ‘As Pitino is honored, U of L can’t afford another loss’
(AP photo)
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Big Blue Links for Monday:
Full transcript of Rick Pitino press conference after his Louisville team’s loss to UK:
Opening statement …
“I think the turning point for us was Gorgui (Dieng) leaving the game. We just broke down and he is the guy we have to have on the court at all times. I’ve coached a lot of teams that have given great effort but I have never coached a team that is willing to give the effort that this team gives. Unfortunately there are no moral victories. We struggled shooting the basketball tonight; we forced a lot of turnovers tonight but didn’t make them pay. We didn’t do a good job on the backboard with Gorgui out of the game. Gorgui is one thing and then you are playing two six-foot guards and that doesn’t help rebounding. Kyle didn’t rebound so we were really overmatched rebounding tonight. If we can somehow get our execution to match our effort then we’ll have an outstanding ball club. I’m real proud of our guys, I’ve never coached a group that has this much will to win but we’ve got to start shooting the ball better because if you work that hard and get nothing out of it then it’s really frustrating.”
On coming back from an early deficit…
“I don’t know every team in the country but I don’t think any team comes back like we do because, again, that’s just incredible will power and effort. The good thing is we are getting more bodies back so we won’t have to worry about foul trouble as much. We’re always going to make comebacks, we did the other night. You can’t always come back and win. This was a very good basketball team, we fought them hard but they were better than us.”
On Russ Smith…
“He’s impressive doing things with the ball. He’s got to go in there and hit somebody, he’s staying out on the perimeter and we’re in a fight five versus four. We’re getting the hell beat out of us and we just need another guy to come in and hit somebody.”
Continue reading ‘Full transcript of Pitino’s presser after loss to Kentucky’
(H-L photo/Mark Cornelison)
Big Blue Links for Friday:
Pat Knight, son of Bob, coaches the Lamar Cardinals tonight against UK at Rupp Arena. That brings to mind Bob Knight’s annual on-the-floor battles with the Cats. A recap:
- As a young coach at Army, Knight’s team lost to Adolph Rupp and Kentucky 80-65 in the finals of the 1968 UKIT at Memorial Coliseum. After becoming coach at Indiana, Knight beat Rupp 90-89 in overtime in Louisville in 1971.
- Knight won his first four games against Joe B. Hall, but then ended up just 9-9 8-8 against the Kentucky coach. There was the infamous head-slap game in 1974 in which IU routed the Cats 98-74 and Knight either tapped or slapped Hall on the back of the head, depending on your interpretation of events. Kentucky got revenge later that same season by knocking off an undefeated IU 92-90 in the Mideast Region final in Dayton. Hall won five of the last seven meetings between the two coaches, which may have had something to do with their relationship going south.
Continue reading ‘A look at Bob Knight’s coaching record against Kentucky’
Rick Pitino was a tad testy in his post-game press conference after Louisville struggled to beat a 4-9 Western Kentucky 70-60. I’m guessing the head coach heard John Calipari’s comments about teams practicing on Christmas, which some took as a jab at the U of L coach. Pitino did say tonight that he was giving his team some time off before it played Georgetown next week. When asked how much time, Pitino said, “That’s none of your business.”
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Rick Pitino isn’t a doctor, he just plays one in college basketball. The guy really needs his own medical show. Last week, Louisville announced that prized basketball freshman Wayne Blackshear would be out for the season with a torn labrum. Then Tuesday, out of nowhere, Pitino announced that the surgery had been successful – dare we say miraculous? – and that Blackshear could be back in six to eight weeks.
Continue reading ‘The incredible healing powers of Rick Pitino’
When it comes to conference expansion, Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Bianchi has some advice for Rick Pitino.
Sit down and shut up.
Excerpt:
Bianchi has been advocating that the Big East take Central Florida as a member. Pitino has been publicly more interested in recruiting Temple and Memphis.
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