ESPN on Pitino

["Greg Odegaard" <gmodegaa@longvred.rmc.com>]

Here is a nice article and sign of growing respect for the Celtics and the
Coach.

BTW I spoke to a friend who works for an ISP, he said there is one simple
and relatively easy way to get rid of an e-mail jerk like our Faker friend.
 That is to send him e-mails of everything you can, copy him on every gory
detail, ten times if you can spare the time.  He has heard of jokers being
the recipient of 10's of thousands of junk mail postings.  This will
virtually paralize his computer, with him obviously spending hours clearing
them up, and having to go to the trouble of sorting through the 99.9% junk
to get to his real mail.  The true way to get to a practical joker is to
beat him at his own game.  I work at my computer for many hours through
day, and I intend to barrage him with maybe hundreds of postings.  I know I
know how childish of me to sink to his level, I agree, call me what you
want, but the thought of this guy maybe having to come to us apologizing to
stop our harassment is worth all the backlash.  If just a few dozen of you
join me in this crusade, well think of the fun.  You can take our lives but
you can't take away our dignity.

Here is the ESPN article on Pitino (our friend got it a few times too):



Pitino insists on success
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

MARCH 5, 1998

BOSTON — When Rick Pitino arrived at Providence College in 1985, he
inherited an 11-20 team and a doughy junior point guard named Billy
Donovan.

"Nobody expected much, including the players," says Donovan, now the head
coach at the University of Florida. "There was an article written that
asked, 'How can you play in a Rolls Royce league with Volkswagen players?'

"Well, we succeeded because of Rick Pitino, not because of our personnel.
He believed in us. The biggest thing is, he drives you beyond where you
think you can go -- and you still want to come back for more."

Isn't that the clinical definition of good coaching?

Providence was 17-14 in Pitino's first year and 25-9 in 1986-87. The Friars
went to the Final Four that season, and Donovan -- whose unlikely
reincarnation best embodied Pitino's vision -- was the leading scorer.
Donovan does not argue with those who call that Providence team the
least-talented ever to reach the Final Four.

And now, for the fifth time in Pitino's career, it's happening again. Some
people who haven't been paying attention are surprised.

"They were saying that the Boston Celtics would be lucky to win a dozen
games this season," Donovan says. "Not me. I said they'd win 40. That's how
much faith I had in him. You know what? It could happen."

Last year under M.L. Carr, the Celtics won a franchise-low 15 games and
lost a numbing 67. Pitino's Celtics are 28-31 after Wednesday night's
110-94 loss to Utah.

This is fairly remarkable, for the Celtics, who have beaten Chicago and Los
Angeles, have no inside presence to speak of. Like those old Providence
teams, they live on the perimeter.

Pitino, looking relaxed in green and white sweats, laughs. It's an hour
before the Jazz game, and he has just been asked if he thought this team
would have a serious whiff of .500 this late in the season. Stupid
question, really.

It doesn't surprise me," he says. "But I think we're going to have to win
40 to make the playoffs. To be honest with you, I'm not sure if we can get
there."

When the Celtics signed Pitino, 45, to an unprecedented 10-year,
$50-million contract, the open question in the NBA was this: could he
convince 25-year-old veterans to dive on the floor for loose balls every
night?

In a word, yes.

The Celtics, the youngest team in the league, simply try harder. Pitino --
dubbed The Ricktator by the Boston Globe's Peter May -- gets his team to
play every night, a novelty in a league of eight-figure annual salaries.

Boston leads the league in forcing turnovers. The Celtics play a frenzied
game of full-court pressure that requires the use of the entire roster.
Eleven of the 12 players average at least 12 minutes.

"They are," says Charlotte coach Dave Cowens, a former Celtic, "like fleas
on a dog."

Against the Jazz, even veteran John Stockton succumbed to the double-team,
turning the ball over on back-to-back possessions. 

In his latest book, "Success is a Choice," Pitino writes, "You want to
succeed? OK, then succeed. Deserve it. How? Outwork everybody in sight.
Sweat the small stuff. Sweat the big stuff. Go the extra mile."

Cliches? Sure, but Pitino believes this stuff. Eventually, so do his
players. It makes him the best coach in big-time sports. Pat Riley, Bill
Parcells, Jim Leyland and Scotty Bowman all have enjoyed more than a modest
share of talent over the years. Pitino is never satisfied.

If it's not broken, break it and make it better," he says. "We've kept
working here to improve the roster. We've got a nucleus that gives us
flexibility and a future."

It's a mission statement he has achieved again and again.

In 1978-79, Pitino took a 10-15 Boston University team and finished 17-9.
In 1983, BU reached the NCAA tournament for the first time in 24 years.
After two years at Providence, Pitino improved the Knicks by 14 games in
1988 and ended a three-year playoff absence.

"He's the best at creating chemistry," Donovan says. "It's probably the
most underrated thing he does. He has chemistry every year. He builds an
atmosphere where everyone believes."

When Pitino took over at Kentucky in 1989, the legendary program had been
leveled by NCAA sanctions. His athletic director told him he'd be lucky to
win three or four games, but Pitino prodded the Wildcats to a 14-14 record
-- perhaps his best coaching effort.

The only time he was blessed with talent, Kentucky won the NCAA
championship in 1996.

Pitino's only weakness? The Celtics' president and de facto general manager
is not a shrewd personnel man. He drafted point guard Chauncey Billups with
the No. 3 pick in last year's draft, then traded him. After signing free
agent Chris Mills to a monster deal, Pitino traded him, too.

Details, details.

The impact of Pitino's craft can be seen beyond the court, where he has
sent dozens of former players to success. Donovan is merely one. At 24, he
was hired by Pitino as a Kentucky assistant. After five more years in
Pitino's frantic orbit, Donovan went to Marshall, then in 1996 to Florida,
where he is undeniably building a winner.

Donovan's Gators are 13-13 going into Thursday night's SEC Tournament game
against Auburn, and the prospects for next year are even better. The
once-chubby point guard has assembled one of the nation's top recruiting
classes. He has two McDonald's High School All-Americas coming next year,
or one fewer than the school has had in its entire history.

The critical mass in Florida's rise came Feb. 1, when the Gators stunned
Kentucky -- Pitino's Kentucky, Donovan's Kentucky -- 86-78 in Lexington
before a national television audience. It was the school's first win over a
ranked SEC opponent on the road in a decade.

At 7:30 the next morning, the phone rang at Donovan's house. It was, of
course, Pitino.

"Good job," he told Donovan. "Huge win. Hard work pays off, doesn't it?"