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Pitino article on ESPN Sportszone
Here's an article I found on ESPN Sportszone.
Pitino insists on success
ARCHIVE
PROFILE
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?"