Re: RP on Carr

[Kim Malo <kmalo19@idt.net>]

At 05:16 PM 8/6/98 -0800, Peter Delevett <pdelevett@sjbj.com> wrote:
>Re Pitino's Sportsline Interview: It's very interesting hearing him say 'I
could have won 35 or more games with the talent they had last [ML Carr's]
year.' I distinctly remember Pitino defending Carr earlier this season,
saying nobody could have won with the roster he had. Back me up on this?

Yeah, he did say something along those lines at some point, although usually
he's careful to make no reference to that team. At the same time, you have
to take anything like that that RP says with a lot of salt. He's pretty
careful not to badmouth people publicly, no matter how justified it might
seem. And the more recent comment is directed at criticism of the results of
his roster upheavals rather than attacking ML. No one, not even ML I should
think, would deny that RP is a better coach and therefore should be able to
get more out of the same talent.

<snip>
>Finally, I would be shocked if Rick really had 5 offers for DeClercq! Maybe
one! I think that's Rick trying to raise DeQ's possible future trade value.

I think this is unfair to DeC. It's more what the nature of the offers might
have been that I'd wonder about. DeC really is a solid bench player, which
for a bigman is a valuable commodity. And he improved A LOT as the season
went on. He just wasn't up to what the Cs needed from him, making him look
worse than he is.

-Kim
Kim Malo
kmalo19@idt.net