End of Pitino era?

[Alexander Wang <awang@MIT.EDU>]

One thing is obvious: Pitino does not take losing well. He hasn't had to
deal with the experience of failure before and it wrecks him emotionally,
leading to statements like the ones previously about negativity and about
quitting before. I'm sure the loss to Philadelphia was an extremely hard
one for him to take, getting clobbered by a now dominating team that was in
a similar dismal situation as the Celtics when he started, led by the man
that he beat out for the Celtics job. I remember a game against Philly
during Pitino's first season when Larry Brown thanked Pitino afterwards for
taking off the press after we were comfortably ahead and not humiliating
his team. Things have really changed and Larry Brown is back to looking
like a genius.

But at the same time, we're a 4-6 team and not an 0-10 team right now.
Pitino's had a history of saying things after bad losses that he later
decides he didn't really mean. I'm not so sure that he's a goner yet.
Ignoring the games we've played against them, the records of the teams that
have beaten us are: Cleveland (6-3), Toronto (4-4), New York (7-4),
Phladelphia (8-0), and Washington (2-8). Yes, losing to Washington sucked.
We're not playing like a playoff team. We haven't beaten any good teams
yet. But the season is far from over. We do have to start playing much
better, and soon.

Alex