THE FINAL SAY
By Zach McCrite
Regardless Of Your Thoughts On Pitino , He Is Missed Right Now
I already miss Rick Pitino . Truly , I do .
This is to say nothing negative towards David Padgett , the interim head coach of the University of Louisville basketball team . He ’ s a fine man in a precarious spot .
I ’ m also not implying that Rick Pitino should still be the coach of the Cardinals .
No matter how much he knew or didn ’ t know about multiple ( let that sink in : multiple ), program- and university-staining scandals , the way he accepted basically zero responsibility for them other than “ making two bad hires ,” as he once admitted , was icky enough , if you ask me .
But that doesn ’ t mean I ’ m not missing him .
Here we are in December – a month where Louisville will take on both Indiana and Kentucky – and we ’ re not going to get any of the fun stuff to which we have become accustomed .
No longer are we going to get the numerous sideline animations that we were so used to seeing . The yelling at the players from the other side of the court . The seemingly video-game like pointing , pulling and raising of the arms to try to get the kids to do exactly as he pictures in his mind .
I will miss the times he got down on one knee when things seemed relatively comfortable during the game . The classic hands-behind-the-back move when he needed to say something that wasn ’ t necessarily angelic , let ’ s say .
Some of his most memorable games as a coach are etched in my memory forever , too .
I will miss how he guided the most unbelievable tournament comeback I can ever recall , when the 4-seed Cards were down 20 to 8-seed West Virginia in the 2005 Elite 8 . The Mountaineers went an earth-shattering 18-of-27 from 3-point range and Pitino somehow figured out a way to get his crew to claw all the way back and win that NCAA Regional Final in Albuquerque .
And the press conferences . Oh , the press conferences .
Just at Louisville , he answered longtime WAVE 3 sports anchor Bob Domine ’ s phone at a press conference and had a conversation with someone on the other end who apparently wanted to meet for a drink .
Or the time when he spoke out about the Karen Sypher extortion case and told the fans that “ we need to get onto the important things in life – like the economy .”
The best of Rick Pitino came a little later in that day when he blamed the media for providing coverage of a Sypher interview on a day that the rest of the nation mourned … I guess .
“ Everything that ’ s been printed , everything that ’ s been reported , everything that ’ s been breaking in the news on the day Ted Kennedy died is 100 percent a lie , a lie ,” Pitino said ( italic emphasis added ). That ’ s so great ! Or when former Notre Dame coach and ESPN analyst Digger Phelps said in 2013 that no No . 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament was going to make the Final Four and Rick Pitino called him out at a press conference saying , “ All you have to do is ( predict against ) Digger , and you got a great chance of winning , because he ’ s never right . That ’ s why keeping winning … . He knows nothing .” Awesome . By the way , Rick was right . Louisville went on to win the national championship *.
Even the non-press conferences were awesome . I ’ m referring , of course , to the times where he would lose to John Calipari and the University of Kentucky and just wouldn ’ t show up at the podium . A mad Pitino was a great Pitino at the microphone … at least when he showed up .
And then there are the memorable times before he even got to the podium , like when he made some sort of gesture to Wildcats fans as he walked off the Rupp Arena floor and though the tunnel . Perhaps he was just scratching his head . Or perhaps it was a ‘ bird ’ of some sort .
Speaking of Calipari , Pitino ’ s collisions with him are legendary . No matter how much the two tried to sugarcoat it to their respective local media , the relationship between the two never seemed to be anything better than adversarial at best .
When the annual UofL vs . UK game came around , the two were always asked about it . They would always downplay it . Calipari seemed to come the closest to coming clean about their connection . “ I mean , look , we ’ re 90 miles away from each other and at competitive , rival schools ,” Calipari said before their last meeting against each other one year ago this month . “ You know , it ’ s hard to send each other Christmas cards . It is what is .”
Sadly , we must correct that last sentence now . It was what it was . And it was awesome .
The good news for Pitino in the rivalry ? Even though Calipari was 8-2 against Pitino during their rivalry , ol ’ Rick P got the last laugh in a 73- 70 win over Cal . He got the last laugh .
But , sadly , that ’ s not the image many will remember .
In fact , the last image we have of him truly representing the University of Louisville is in a super-show-off-your-muscles-and-nipples type Lamar Jackson jersey on College Gameday back when ESPN thought Cardinal Football was a title contender .
There ’ s something funny about that , even if you ’ re a diehard Cards fan – this is the last moment Pitino publicly represented this iniversity in a proud way . It ’ s OK to chuckle . It ’ s almost therapeutic . It ’ s cathartic .
There ’ s zero doubt that he ’ s one of the smartest X-and-O basketball coaches of our lifetime . And , no matter who replaces him at UofL permanently , it ’ s going to be tough to replicate that intelligence . And the bravado . Definitely the bravado . I miss Rick PItino . At least on the court and at the podium . And it ’ s starting to hit me right now .
Want to find Zach on Twitter ? Just follow @ BigEZ .
48 EXTOL SPORTS / DECEMBER 2017