Re: (no subject)

["Tim Lynch" <timmer96@mindspring.com>]

Well I'll preface my comments by saying this list is wildly overreacting to
one preseason game.  A strong preseason last year meant nothing and this
game means nothing longterm.  In fact, if anything I'm heartened by the fact
that one of the biggest questions (can Eric Williams physically return to
form?) may have been positively answered.  Anything else is too early to be
determined on the basis of a game where Pitino is more interested in mixing
and matching lineups than getting a W.  Perhaps he was rewarding certain
players efforts by giving them the start.  Perhaps he wanted to see how the
already condemned Cheaney (a player the "omniscient" Riley wanted remember)
did in Mercer's old position and sets.  It seems many are extrapolating
season long trends based on lineups OVER TWO WEEKS BEFORE HALLOWEEN!
Somehow in 48 minutes of basketball he has already permanently retarded the
development of the players for years to come?  Ludicrous.

>     The only solace I'll take is that Pitino has always been relatively
> weak at coaching big men, so any input from Bill Russell can provide
> great synergy. As incredibly gifted a coach as Pitino is, I don't think
> he'd make any informed "top 100" list of guys you'd want to develop low
> post talent. I think his string of fantastic success in college without
> any true center (Walter McCarty may have been his best), made him think
> his innovative system might continue working at the next level even with
> a Mark Pope-type finesse guy manning the middle (Travis Knight etc.)  If
> Russell watched the game last night, he was probably tempted to get on
> the cell phone and cackle in Pitino's face. Now that he has the bodies,
> Pitino needs to cut down the gimmicks and think only of building team
> chemistry and defining each starter's role. The way his mind seems to
> work, I'd actually be surprised right now if Pitino starts both Fortson
> and Vitaly to open the season.

I generally agree with most of your opinions but not today's post, this part
in particular.  This is one of the fallacies that has been purported ad
nauseum about Pitino when the fact is that it is simply not true.  He has
coached very few true big men but not for a lack of trying.  At UK he
recruited every big name prospect that came along but was usually rebuffed
by someone who believed (or was told by UNC, Duke & UM) what you wrote above
or "didn't want to run all the time".  The only player in those eight years
he was able to get with a true center's frame was Nazr Mohammed, a 300+ lb
tub of goo that could barely cross halfcourt.  Less than two years later he
was dominant big man in the 1997 NCAA championship game (he missed his six
free throws though...@#$%!).  I've honestly never seen a player transform
that much (beyond his weight loss) in a short period of time.  Pitino, along
with Jim O'brien and the since dismissed Winston Bennett all spent long
hours with him and their work speaks for itself.  Couple this with Patrick
Ewing lauding Pitino in greatly helping him improve his game and I fail to
believe he has some great deficit in this area.  A lack of quantity on his
track record, sure, but not a lack of quality.

> Joe

Tim